Ride
by henderlover
Summary: Since his parent's divorce, Kendall has left his life in Minnesota behind with his father; traveling to eight new places in less than a year. Landing in New York City by the new year, Kendall has found the desire to find somewhere he can call 'home', and just maybe someone to love. In the Big Apple Kendall meets James, who might be just the person to help him out. Kames, AU.
1. Life on the Road

Minnesota wasn't necessarily boring.

Actually, Kendall quite liked the whole seventeen years he spent there. It was quiet, and one could really clear their head when they needed to. No one was pushy; no one nosed into your business. Which was nice.

Kendall chose to follow after his father after his seventeenth birthday, and left the small town in Minnesota. After his parents' divorce, he thought it would be good to go with his dad—the traveler in the family. He figured it would bring something new to the table—a new adventure or something to change his usual boring routine he'd been going through all his life.

Kendall was of course a little bit sad that he left behind his home, mom and little sister, but hey, it's not like they begged him to stay or anything.

So it's been nine months, ten days and three hours since he left his hometown in Minnesota.

And since then he's been in 2 major cities and four towns. The traveling was constant.

It started with Chicago, Illinois. Kendall was stoked to be there. The Windy City, all in the palm of his hand. Not a single day spent there was boring—always something to do.

After a month and a half, they left to Green Bay. Wisconsin, let's be honest, doesn't compare to the excitement of the city streets in Chicago. So Kendall wasn't sad when they left Wisconsin to go to Nashville.

Kendall, as an artist and all-around lover of music, enjoyed it there for a bit of the time spent there. Except there was one thing: he hated country music. So Nashville Tennessee got annoying. _Fast_. Although, the southern boys he met there definitely knew what it was to show Kendall a little bit of 'Southern Hospitality', which meant the sex he had with them was always fucking _amazing_.

From Tennessee to the Hamptons, from the Hamptons to a small town in Georgia. Then finally, from Georgia to Seattle.

Yeah, traveling was fun. But Kendall was getting way too used to it, almost like how he got way too used to living in the small town he grew up in. So now he was seeing that the moving around too much was just not as fun as it used to be.

And after these nine months, ten days and three hours, he finally admitted to himself:

It was getting old.

* * *

_Seattle, December 14__th__:_

Kendall sipped his coffee in the local shop next to their hotel, waiting for his dad, waiting for a 'talk' they were supposed to have. Kendall was a little nervous—but this 'talk' was probably going to be about another place they had to go to.

Kendall's dad was the chairman of Knight Hotels, meaning they could basically stay anywhere in the United States of America that they wanted to, _whenever_ they wanted to. They were well off financially, so it's not like they couldn't just drop everything to buy a house and stay _there_.

But Kendall's dad really was a traveler—he got antsy staying in one place for too long and wouldn't settle on a home if his life depended on it.

Not Kendall though.

Lately, he'd been starting to get tired of living on the road: not really having a home aside from the suites they often stayed in.

When Kendall and his father went to Chicago, they actually rented an apartment for a month; but that idea quickly became dull after his father realized that the landlords did not provide warm hospitality or room service.

And all while this life seemed glamorous to the many people he had to explain it to; Kendall hadn't been enrolled in a single school for more than three weeks at a time. It was getting to the point where by the time they got to Nashville he and his father mutually decided that homeschooling—wherever 'home' turned out to be, would be much more suitable for their lifestyle.

It was Kendall's senior year anyways, what did it matter? He'd already gotten the crazy stuff like college applications and SAT's out of the way. So what did it matter if he didn't have to take a gym class? What did it matter if he spent his 'schooldays' walking around a new city or new place almost everyday?

"Hey buddy," Kendall watched as his father, Jon, sat down across from him in the small booth.

"Where are we going now?" Kendall wasn't worried about the awkward small talk that his father wanted to make. He was used to all of the 'how has your day been' shit, he just wanted to skip ahead already.

"Not so fast," Jon's smile was replaced by a frown. "Just wanted to catch up with you—"

"Dad," Kendall raised an eyebrow, warning him to stop.

"Okay," Jon shook his head. "We're going to Miami in a couple of days."

"Miami?" Kendall was kind of shocked. By the sounds of it, a lot of the people in Florida were old. Not to mention, this would be the fourth time in three and a half months that Kendall and his father changed locations. "And how long will we be _there_?" It was supposed to be more of a rhetorical question than one that needed an answer.

"Hey," Jon pointed a finger at Kendall. "You _had_ been fine with all of the moving a the beginning of all this. Don't go changing on me _now_."

"But is it too much to ask to stay in one place for at least two months?"

"I don't believe in growing attached to things," Jon retorted, making Kendall think.

Kendall didn't grow attached to things anymore either; he was just growing used to the fact that he didn't have a choice. For him, the past nine months were learning experiences—teaching him that he couldn't grow attached to things, only because he would soon be ripped apart from them. And until he was accepted into a college and parted ways with his dad, it would stay the same:

Adapt to change, only to deal with more changes.

Make friends one day, everyone is a stranger to him the next.

Make a home, only to desert it.

Give his heart to someone, only to ask for it back and then crush it.

It wouldn't change either.

Kendall sighed and looked down at his coffee cup in between his two hands.

"When's our flight?"

* * *

_Seattle, December 16th:_

Kendall sat on a bench at Alki Beach Park on the outskirts of the city of Seattle late at night. For the past couple weeks, this was where he found it nice for thinking, being with himself. Not many came to the beach at this hour—plus it was December, meaning anyone who did come at night would find it too cold to be here.

"Hey, I just got your text, came as fast as I could," Kendall looked up at his…well…what were they? Friends? Fuck buddies?

"Hey Logan," He responded to his friend—about the only acquaintance he made in the short time he 'lived' in Seattle. In that time they'd managed to hang out, hook up, and fuck each other silly almost every other night. It killed Kendall to know that tomorrow he'd be leaving it all behind; he was _really_ starting to like the kid.

Logan sat down next to him, watching Kendall look straight ahead at the dark water.

"What's up? I mean your text said come 'ASAP' so I—" he held up his phone before Kendall silenced him.

"Shh," Kendall chuckled darkly and cut off Logan's adorable worrying. Soon the rambling would probably be upset shouting or something of that sort, so Kendall wanted to rip the band-aid off of the situation as quickly as possible. He took Logan's hand in his and took a deep breath in and out.

"So you know how I explained to you my dad's job, and how it requires a lot of moving around and stuff…" he started, before Logan was already catching on and looking down at their intertwined hands with a sad expression. From what Logan explained to Kendall about himself—Logan was a genius. But this situation didn't even require a genius to figure out.

"Where are you going?" Logan whispered, leaning into Kendall side. "When?"

"Miami," Kendall answered, leaning down to kiss the top of Logan's head resting on his shoulder. "I'm going tomorrow."

Kendall wasn't sure why he didn't tell Logan the night he found out—it was always hard explaining to the guys he'd been with in the past that he was going to leave all of a sudden. But then again, he almost always explained to them his lifestyle—it wasn't like it was a super duper plot twist when Kendall found out he had to pack up and leave again.

"Tomorrow?" Logan pulled away and looked Kendall in his green eyes. Logan's clear brown eyes weren't filled with tears just yet, but definitely with sorrow. Kendall nodded, reaching his free hand up to cup the side of Logan's face.

"Maybe one day I'll come back," Kendall shrugged; not wanting to sound too sincere because he knew that probably wasn't true. And from the look his genius friend was giving Kendall—Logan knew it too.

He couldn't lie to Logan. Sweet sweet Logan.

"Kendall," Logan chuckled—without any humor behind it. "I wish I saw this coming."

"I know," Kendall looked down at their hands, still clasped together. "I wish _I _did too."

Logan leaned in for a kiss, full of need and sadness. They sat on the bench like that for a couple minutes, kissing each other instead of talking and figuring everything out with words.

From the beginning this relationship wasn't supposed to be about feelings, so why was it so hard for Kendall to not enjoy the smart brunette kissing him the way he did? Why couldn't he have just stayed with his mom and sister nine months ago? He never would have broken any hearts, or his own for that matter. Maybe he'd even find a real boyfriend in Minnesota to find comfort in, but no.

He really fucked himself in the ass with this one.

Growing too attached to something or someone always resulted in a great fucking of the ass.

It all hurt way too much to think about, so he broke his lips apart from his friend's and pulled them both up from the bench.

"I'm so sorry," Kendall sighed, pressing his forehead against Logan's—breathing in that nice, clean scent Logan had.

Logan nodded before looking up at Kendall. "We'll still be friends right? You'll text and call me?"

Kendall smiled weakly with a nod in response. "Of course I will." This was surprisingly the first time any guy he'd 'broken up' with still wanted to be friends: all of the other guys found everything way too confusing and not worth their time.

It didn't _really_ hurt Kendall when he stopped talking to them—another rule he lived by: if it were meant to be, it would have worked out. Maybe this meant that friendship _was_ meant to be with Logan, so maybe it was okay that he was growing attached.

Logan smiled back and then wriggled his hand out of Kendall's, then held it out for a handshake with a grin.

"It's been fun," Kendall smirked, shaking his friend's hand.

"Goodbye, Kendall Knight," Logan saluted him after they dropped their hands, then turned to start walking home through the cold.

"It's not goodbye, Logan Mitchell," Kendall called after him.

"You'd better call me after you land tomorrow!" Logan shouted over his shoulder from a distance.

Kendall laughed to himself while he watched Logan disappear into the darkness, headed towards the city lights. Once he was no longer visible, Kendall decided to walk down the beach for what could be the last time.

He sighed as he kicked at the soggy sand underneath him, wondering what the beaches in Miami were like. He didn't particularly like beaches, but this one was different. Maybe it's just because it's cold, or maybe it's because he hadn't been in Seattle during the summer when the beaches were busy. But Kendall just knew that he wouldn't be able to clear his head on the beaches on Miami—where he had heard from an old friend that people were drunk all of the time.

Kendall didn't mind the drinking so much as he did the irritating drunken people.

"Hey! Kid!"

Kendall's head whipped around only to be blinded by the beam of light coming from a flashlight. He stopped his movements, figuring out it was a park patrol officer and not wanting to cause any trouble.

"What are you doing here so late? It's past midnight."

"Is it? I was just taking a detour back—" Kendall caught himself before he said the word 'home' at the end of his sentence.

"Alright," he couldn't actually see the officer's face, so he didn't know if the man was buying the information Kendall was giving. "Go home kid." The officer turned off his flashlight and turned around before Kendall could catch a glimpse of his face.

_Yeah, home._

* * *

**Okay so short first chapter, I know. I just wanted to get this up so I could ask you guys if it's worth continuing or not.**

**Tell me if you like it and I should continue it! I just don't know...**

**And again, thank you all for the support on Along for the Rush! It was so fun writing it and talking about it with you guys!**

**Please review!**

**xx**

**Sarah**


	2. Life in Miami

**Thank you all so much for the positive feedback! I guess I'm keeping this going after all! :)**

**Also thank you to all of you lovely reviewers, including: Kandis-renea, KEALY KAMES, DramaJen89, ThatKamesLover15, Sassy Kames, ialmostdo and DeniseDEMD. **

**Chapter 2:**

* * *

_Miami, Friday, December 17__th__:_

Palm Trees.

Six hours worth of traveling, and all Kendall saw after getting off the airplane was Palm Trees.

He missed Seattle already.

"Dad? How are we going to get a Christmas tree?" Kendall asked as they searched for their rental car in the huge terminal parking lot.

"What do you mean? There are plenty of trees here!" Jon spread his arms and motioned to all of the surrounding palm trees.

"Palm trees, dad," Kendall rolled his eyes as they got to the small silver Honda and shoved their luggage into it.

"We'll decorate one of those," Jon said as they got into their seats and buckled up. Jon then handed Kendall a slip of paper with an address scribbled on it. "Now, put this into the GPS would you?"

Kendall did as he was told before plugging into his headphones and music, blocking out any whistling or humming his dad did along with the radio. Judging from the shorts and t-shirts everyone was wearing, it didn't get too cold here. Which was a bummer, because Kendall only had _so many_ pairs of shorts that he liked to wear.

He watched the house sizes go from big, to small, to smaller, to mansion-size. Then they started driving through the heart of the city, before crossing over to Miami Beach. Good thing Kendall wasn't afraid of water—it was absolutely everywhere.

Finally, around noon they pulled into the front of a hotel, immediately greeted by the employees.

"Mr. Knight, so good to see you!"

As soon as they were inside it got worse.

"We've saved one of our finest suites for you and your son, Mr. Knight!"

Twenty minutes later they were finally in their room unpacking. A lot of the time Kendall spent unpacking he spent questioning if it was necessary to unpack—meaning he knew it was possible that they could be leaving tomorrow night, so it might not even be worth going through the trouble.

"Kendall? I'm going to go meet with the manager, feel free to explore _Miami_," Jon put a sort of a twist on the word 'Miami' by waving his arms around weirdly, as if he expected Kendall to like the place better or something.

Truth was, Kendall wasn't sure if he would like it, he wasn't sure what to expect out of this part of Florida. So as soon as his father left, Kendall pulled on a pair of shorts and ditched his sweatshirt before slipping on a new pair of vans and sliding some sunglasses on to the bridge of his nose.

He dug his wallet out of his backpack before slipping the room card-key into it and leaving the suite.

"Good afternoon, Mr. Knight," a maid pushing her cart full of cleaning supplies greeted him as he squeezed past her. "Anything I can do for you, sir?"

Kendall almost snorted at the use of 'sir'. The employees at the hotels always used it when they approached him because they thought it would please him—no.

Just no.

"Call me Kendall," Kendall held a hand up, telling her not to worry. "And I'm fine, thank you…" he searched for the name tag on the Latino woman's uniform: Sylvia Garcia. "Sylvia. Thank you." He smiled at her as her pretty brown eyes lit up before walking away.

"See you soon, Mr. Knight," the doorman opened the door for him as he exited the building. So the Miami employees meant business.

"Lovely day for a walk, Mr. Knight," a valet worker outside waved him off.

Kendall swore if he was called Mr. Knight one more time today…

"Mr. Knight!"

_That's it._

He whipped his head back around to the source of the call and saw an employee running over to his position on the sidewalk.

"You dropped your phone back there!" The man huffed as he stopped and held out—wow, that was indeed Kendall's phone.

"Thank you," Kendall instantly felt like a dick and reached out to take the phone, remembering that he had to call Logan at some point—he'd promised.

"Have a nice afternoon, _Mr_. _Knight_." Okay, he'd have to talk to his dad about this name thing.

He walked away without a word, staring down at his contact list before his finger ended up on Logan Mitchell's name.

"Kendall?" Logan picked up after two rings.

"Hi," Kendall crossed the street away from the crosswalk, resulting in two cars honking at him.

"Well? What's it like there?"

"It's like a desert," Kendall weaved through a few people on the sidewalks until he could lean against a railing that separated the sidewalk from the beach. "I've never been anywhere so hot."

"You'll get used to it," Logan snorted. Kendall could hear the background noise of the coffee shop he used to enjoy sitting at behind Logan's voice.

"There's no Christmas trees here," Kendall huffed, resting his head in his hands propped up by his elbows on the railing. Ahead the beach had a couple of people sitting on it, a group of people playing beach volleyball. "And there's like, no one hanging outside right now."

"It's called work and school," Logan laughed. "You wouldn't know."

"Speaking of school, why aren't you there?"

"Midterms," Logan answered. "I finished all of mine so now I'm officially on break."

Kendall's eyes wandered down the beach where he saw a couple of lifeguards standing up surfboards and boats against the lifeguard chair. Tall, tan, muscular…

"Kendall?" Logan snapped him out of his fantasies.

"Sorry, what?"

"I asked what you were planning on doing today," Logan said slowly—as if he thought Kendall were incapable of understanding. Maybe Kendall wouldn't have been able to understand if he were still staring at those lifeguards who were now no longer in his sight.

"I'll probably just walk around, explore. Sit by the pool at the hotel."

"Why sit at the pool when you have a beach right outside?" Kendall could almost hear Logan shaking his head.

"Because I'm weird, sorry," Kendall rolled his eyes.

"Well…just text me later after you decide to do something fun," Logan said before muttering a 'thank you' to someone else on his end of the phone.

"Will do, Lo-gaine," Kendall chuckled.

"I miss you," Logan sighed. "Talk to you later."

And with that, Kendall was alone again, leaning on the railing that led down to the beach, unsure of what to do.

He took a step away from the railing, before he heard "Look out!"

Then the concrete was rushing up to meet him, and he could have sworn he blacked out for a second. When he regained control of his brain, he realized he was laying down on the sidewalk, phone sitting next to his face and cut up hands, as well as a kid. A guy that looks around his age, cute too.

"I'm so sorry," the kid grunted while rubbing his forehead. "God I'm so clumsy sometimes.

Kendall lifted his head up a bit, glad to see that no one was around on the sidewalks to see this embarrassing collision.

"Are you alright?" the kid asked. Kendall took a good look at him, seeing how good-looking this kid really was. He was definitely Latino—perfect golden skin and muscular. He had a birthmark below his mouth, making him that much cuter. And his eyes! A clear and crystal-like brown—much like the maid's who he saw earlier. "Uh…"

Oh god, Kendall was caught staring.

"I'm sorry," Kendall shook his head.

"No worries," the boy blushed, averting his eyes from Kendall's.

_That was a blush_, Kendall thought.

"Are you okay?" the kid asked for the second time.

"Oh, shit, yeah," Kendall realized they were both sitting on the sidewalk. He stood and helped the other boy up. He was wearing a colored tank top that hung loosely around his muscular body, a pair of skinny khakis and a snapback hat—dressed appropriately for this weather.

The boy bent over to pick up the skateboard that was probably the source of the problem while Kendall dusted himself off.

"I'm so sorry," he shook his head in shame. "I was just getting way too into it to notice you were standing right in my path, you know?" he reached a hand up to rub the back of his neck as Kendall just stared at him, making sure he caught all of the adorable things he did.

"I'm Kendall," Kendall stuck a hand out, trying to make the boy feel a little less guilty, and to possibly have a name to fantasize about for the next couple of weeks while he lived here.

"I'm Carlos," Carlos' eyes finally met his again with a toothy-white grin and shook Kendall's hand. "Tell me how I can make this up to you. Please. I feel awful."

"Don't worry about it, really," Kendall kept the words short as he felt the Latino holding on to his hand for a little bit longer than necessary.

"I will though, trust me," Carlos dropped Kendall's hand and used the hand to rub the back of his neck again.

"How about…You point me in the direction of a good coffee shop?" Kendall shrugged.

"Coffee?" Carlos' face scrunched up. "Are you sure you don't want a smoothie or—"

"I'm new here," Kendall folded his arms. "Just point me in a direction to somewhere. Anywhere but that hotel," Kendall pointed to his father's hotel.

Carlos grinned. "A newbie, huh?"

Kendall nodded.

"Well come along then, newbie," Carlos shifted his skateboard so that it was tucked under his arm instead of placing it on the ground so he could ride it. They walked for a bit in silence.

"I'll take you to the local shop," Carlos finally said when they reached a crosswalk. "They have some pretty good smoothies," he winked. "I go there after school a lot."

"Aren't you supposed to be in school?" Kendall chuckled, thinking about his conversation with Logan. Maybe he was on break.

"Today was the last day before break started, so I just skipped. What fun is it being in school the day before break?"

Deciding that Carlos' logic wasn't one hundred percent accurate, Kendall ignored that statement and kept following behind his new acquaintance.

"So how long have you been here, Kendall?" Carlos held a door open to what seemed to be the coffee and smoothie shop.

"Uh, well, three hours."

"What?" Carlos gave him a funny, look, not sure if Kendall was messing with him or not. Kendall only laughed at the look, nodding.

"Yeah. I move around a lot," Kendall started to explain his story, but didn't really want to get into it. The two walked into the store and Carlos strolled right up to the counter and ordered some crazy fruity smoothie. Kendall opted for an iced coffee and tipped the employee.

"So if you moved around a lot…where are you from?" Carlos asked as they stood at the end of the counter waiting for their drinks.

_That's a loaded question._

"Minnesota," Kendall started. "But I just got here from Seattle."

"So…you really move around a lot? When did you leave Minnesota?"

"Nine months ago, and then some," Kendall answered. They got their drinks and sat down in a booth near the window before Kendall took a sip.

"So you've only been to Seattle since then?"

Kendall started choking on his drink, he was laughing so hard at that question. He looked insane, but Carlos didn't seem to mind, instead he laughed along and watched Kendall as he lost his mind.

"No," Kendall finally regained normal breathing patterns and chuckled a little more as he looked into Carlos' pretty eyes. Carlos was staring back at him with focused eyes. "I moved from Minnesota to Chicago, Chicago to Green Bay. Then to Nashville, followed by a town up in the Hamptons, then to Georgia. After Georgia we went to Seattle…and as of this morning, now I'm here."

Carlos kind of stared for a bit, speechless.

"Jesus," he leaned back in his seat, sipping his drink without moving his eyes from Kendall's. "That must be hard. Why do you move so much?"

"My dad is the chairman of Knight Hotels," Kendall felt a little uncomfortable under Carlos' gaze, but it was nothing he couldn't handle. "After my parents' divorce, he kind of just wanted to travel. You know, something my mom didn't let him do much of ever since my sister was born."

Besides, he kind of liked thinking that maybe Carlos was actually imagining Kendall without all of his clothes on…_Focus Kendall._

"Knight Hotels, eh?" Carlos smiled, showing all of those perfect white teeth. "My mom works there. Sylvia."

"Sylvia Garcia?" Kendall's mind was blown. He knew he recognized those eyes from somewhere. "I bumped into her only an hour ago!"

"Yeah," Carlos laughed. "She works for fun. My dad works too, she just doesn't like being in the house and she _loves_ cleaning. I think that's where my OCD gene is from," he blushed.

"You would hate living with me," Kendall joked. "I'm such a slob."

Carlos grinned while glancing at his smoothie, his hands folded in his lap.

"So…since you move around a lot," Carlos started, before hesitating to speak. Kendall nodded, urging him on. "Are you in like a long distance relationship or anything?"

Kendall started laughing, but not to the degree of choking like before.

"God, not at all. I'm bad at relationships as it is," Kendall laughed. "Holy hell, I couldn't even imagine how much I'd destroy a long-distance relationship."

"So there's been no one?" Carlos laughed at Kendall's doubtful attitude.

"I mean…there's been one-night stands all over the place, some fuck buddy action," Kendall shrugged, being completely open and honest.

Carlos nodded with a smirk. "There's nothing wrong with those. I think fuck-buddies are the way to go," he locked his eyes on Kendall's, not looking away for a second.

Kendall didn't know what to do with himself when Carlos said that, he had no clue what to do as Carlos continued to look at him. He finally looked away and leaned back into his seat after he and Kendall were done with their drinks.

"What are you doing tonight? I could introduce you to some friends, show you around, since you're _new_ and _all_," Carlos reached over and rest his hand on top of Kendall's on the table.

Kendall shivered under the touch, sending Carlos a confused and aroused look.

"That sounds great," Kendall eased back into his seat and relaxed himself, hoping he knew exactly where this night would lead him.

* * *

"_Fuck_, Carlos."

If anybody had told Kendall this morning that he would be fucked later that evening until his insides were raw against a refrigerator in a hot Latino boy's house, he probably wouldn't have believed it.

But _now_ he believed it.

"Oh my god—" Kendall grunted and bit down on Carlos' shoulder as Carlos continued to pound inside of him, sending images of stars into Kendall's head.

Being pressed in between Carlos' hot stomach and the cool surface of the refrigerator door was just making it all so much more amazing.

Carlos was by far the best fuck he'd had in a _long_, long time. _Sorry Logan._

It had all started at around ten, when Carlos and Kendall left all of Carlos' friends at the park connected to the beach. The two talked and started walking back towards the hotel, when Kendall stopped them both from walking and kissed Carlos. Carlos kissed back immediately, setting off fireworks in Kendall's brain. _Yeah, there was no way he was going back to the hotel alone._

That's when Kendall realized his dad would be in the suite, and would hear _everything_ if they went back there. So Carlos took them back to his house, where the stripping-fest began almost immediately. Kendall was the first to be completely stripped, so Carlos took the initiative to blow Kendall until he couldn't even think anymore—which resulted in Kendall allowing them to have sex in Carlos' kitchen.

Usually when it came to having sex, Kendall was in control, had good manners and was considerate of family members and areas in the houses and hotel suites that were off-limits. But tonight was different, because he _wasn't_ in control.

Carlos was.

And Carlos chose to control Kendall with his huge cock.

"Fuck, Kendall, tight, fuck, hot," Carlos was starting to lose all train of thought, and started to speak random words.

Kendall was getting awfully close with each gut-wrenching jab to his 'special spot' that Carlos delivered.

"Fuck! Carlos I'm gonna—"

"_Ay Papi_."

By god if that wasn't the hottest thing Kendall had ever heard before…

"Fuck!" Kendall came with a shout, splattering his seed all over his lower abdomen and Carlos' chest as Carlos continued to slam himself further and further into Kendall's body.

"C'mon, Litos," Kendall could barely even speak as a sexy creature ripped apart his insides. "_Come for me,_ _papi_."

"Jesus," Carlos moaned as he came inside of Kendall's tight heat. After a few seconds he gently pulled out of Kendall's throbbing backside before taking a break to regain a normal breathing pattern, and then grabbed all of their clothes. Clothes in one hand and Kendall's hand in the other, the two naked boys made their way up to Carlos' bedroom.

"D'you wanna take a shower?" Carlos yawned as he went into his bathroom to find a washcloth to clean himself and Kendall's frontsides up, as Kendall nearly collapsed on the edge of the large bed. Kendall managed to shake his head with a yawn in response.

"Is that okay?" he also managed to squeak out.

"Definitely," Carlos smiled as he straddled Kendall on the bed. "Now move your ass so we can get into bed properly and you can actually go to sleep with me."

"M'kay," Kendall had his eyes half-open, unsure of the abilities in his legs. Once he managed to get in a good spot on the bed, Carlos shut the lights off and climbed in next to him, pulling the covers over them.

Kendall adjusted his positioning sleepily so that he was nuzzling into Carlos' side, quickly drifting to sleep, with one thought in the back of his mind.

_Miami doesn't completely suck._

* * *

**THANK YOU FOR THE REVIEWS ON THE LAST CHAPTER, maybe some more? Early Christmas present :)**

**xx**

**Sarah**


	3. Not-So-Happy New Year

**Sorry I've been so slow :/ I don't know. I'm not feeling this story yet—believe me, if I had ideas for it, I would have updated faster. I'm going to start doing weekly updates again; I like Wednesdays from now on. How about Wednesday?**

**So thank you to those who are pushing me through this depressing time of writer's block with your encouraging reviews **** including: KEALY KAMES, DramaJen89, Sassy Kames and annabellex2. Please keep giving me feedback :) God knows how much I need it…**

**A/N/Spoiler: Later in the chapter there's gonna be a thick New York accent going on….being somewhat a New Yorker I tried to write it out—I'd suggest saying it out loud to yourself while reading it…you'll know when you get there. :)**

**Enjoy!**

**Chapter 3:**

* * *

_Miami, December 31, 2012:_

Two weeks had gone by and Kendall was admittedly having a blast. He didn't want to say it at first, but he was now officially hooked. There was something about the warm and sticky weather, in the day you didn't have to bundle up, and at night it was like you were wrapped up in a nice warm blanket. And if Kendall was cold? He had a certain cute boy to cuddle up to.

The days Kendall spent in the warm weather went like this:

Wakeup, eat either at the at the smoothie place Carlos showed him, or eat room service delivered to the suite—"compliments of the head chef."

Then, Kendall will check his phone, text Logan to tell him he's happily alive still and then set off into the streets of Miami to look for something to do until Carlos could meet up with him.

When Carlos comes, whatever they start out doing, it almost always ends in making out.

The sex happens late at night when they can either sneak into the suite without Kendall's father being around, or when Carlos' mom is still at work and they can get back to the house fast enough.

Kendall's fears of getting attached to his new surroundings and liking Carlos start growing and poking at his heart, but he won't let himself fall for the boy because he knows it could end in a few short weeks, maybe even days. Besides, Miami isn't home. He doesn't have a home.

So he lives in the way he's become used to for the past year—living for the moment in a new place, with Carlos this time.

On Christmas morning, Kendall _wasn't exactly_ surprised when he received an envelope with a check for one thousand dollars from his father. Jon Knight was well known for buying people's affections. The 'card' written on the hotel stationary that came with the check read:

_Thanks for being a trooper. Spend this on something nice—love, Dad_

Kendall stared down at the 'card' in his hand, unsure of what to do with the check. So he did what any normal teenage boy in his position would do—he shrugged and stuffed it in his pocket filled with everything else he could possibly need.

That morning when he pulled his phone out and checked for messages, he _was_ surprised to find a text from his little sister, Katie, who he had not heard from in months, wishing him a Merry Christmas from both her and his mother.

He shot Katie a text back and sighed before retreating back to his bedroom. He then took a shower and sat around all day—knowing that Christmas is a family day and that no one would be out and about.

Days passed by and while Carlos and his friends were on school break, Kendall spent lots of time with all of them.

Today was New Year's Eve—finally. Ten months ago, in Minnesota, his New Year's plans would have been to curl up on the couch with his family and watch the New Year's Eve show with Dick Clark and the adorable Ryan Seacrest. He would go to bed almost immediately after the clock hit midnight, seeing as there was nothing else to do. But _this year_, this year was different. Kendall actually had _plans_.

"So," Kendall's father slid into the seat across from his son at the table in the hotel bar while Kendall put a little bit of food inside of him before his party, looking a little bit guilty.

Kendall ignored the guilt-filled looks he was getting from his father, anxious to get out and celebrate the New Year with Carlos.

"So?" Kendall, clueless, shook his leg out of nerves and impatience, ready for the evening to start.

"So."

"Dad!" Kendall rolled his eyes at his father, hesitant about something.

_Oh no._

That's when it all clicked for Kendall—again.

"So…Ever wanted to go to New York city?" Jon starts, knowing his son would hate him any of the ways he broke down the upcoming move.

Kendall froze and locked his eyes on his father's unbelievable.

"No," Kendall answered out of instinct, gritting his teeth together until there was a sharp pain in his jaw. "No no no no no," he repeated, standing up from his seat. "I'm not having my New Year's Eve ruined right now," Kendall's voice broke. "Couldn't you have waited until tomorrow to tell me this?"

"Well I just—"

"I'm headed out," Kendall shook his head, heart shattered by the bad news. "I'll see you," his tongue caught itself before he said 'later', not sure if he would want to come back to the hotel by the end of the night;

By the start of the New Year.

"Fuckin' New York city," Kendall grumbled. "Fuckin' fuck." He almost knocked over several hotel residents headed into the bar on his way out; surprised his father hadn't tried to stop him from leaving so quickly.

He walked with a scowl on his face while he grumbled the words 'fuck' every once in a while all the way to Carlos' house—a place he got used to walking to in the past two weeks.

One thought that passed through Kendall's mind the midst of all of the curse words and anger seeping through his head:_ How would Carlos react? __Would he care? It's only been two weeks anyways. _

Kendall's heart sank in his chest as he shoved his hands into his pocket and turned a corner on to Carlos' street. He could already hear music blasting from the house—this wasn't going to be some small get together like Carlos had originally wanted.

Kendall could tell by the Jeep that almost killed him as its tires screeched around the corner—full of teenagers, no doubt headed to Carlos' house.

What would Mrs. Garcia say when she got home later, after the employee party at the hotel? She'd have a heart attack with the mess in her house.

_Cleaning was her job, after all._

Kendall reached the front door in front of the pack of teenagers that almost ran him over in the Jeep. As soon as he got inside the door he saw Jett—one of Carlos' closest friends, standing with a group of people he had sort of recognized.

"Kendall!" Jett made eye contact with Kendall and waved him over. Jett was attractive as hell, holding his red cup filled with some kind of alcoholic beverage, but his arrogance and cockiness was a huge turn off for Kendall.

"Hey bud," Kendall smiled that broken smile of his, craning his neck around Jett to see if he could find any of the other friends Carlos often got him to spend time with, or even better: Carlos himself. "Have you seen Carlos?"

"I think he's in his room," Jett shrugged before taking a sip from his cup, making sure he looked pretty while doing it. "Why?"

"I don't know," Kendall lied. "I just want to talk to him before I get completely wasted tonight." _Not a complete lie, not bad Knight. _"I'll be right back."

Once upstairs, Kendall knocked on Carlos' closed bedroom door.'

"Fuck!" a muffled shout emerged from behind the door, which immediately threw Kendall off guard. "Oh my god! Yes!" he heard another shout.

That was _definitely_ Carlos. _Is he seeing someone else?_ _Is that person hotter than me?_

Kendall mentally slapped himself, Carlos was allowed to fool around with whomever he wanted—it's not like two weeks of fucking around made them boyfriends or anything. So Kendall knocked again, this time a little bit louder so at least one person in there could hear it.

"Come in?" Carlos sang out clearly and cheerfully, which kind of surprised Kendall.

He slowly opened the door, unsure of whether or not he could handle seeing Carlos with someone else in a compromising position that he was usually in with the Latino.

He was surprised to see Carlos standing with not only one, but three other people, on the end of a table set up in the room with red cups sitting in a pyramid shaped formation on each end of the table.

Beer pong.

They were playing _beer pong_.

Kendall almost laughed out loud at himself, he was seriously considering getting himself checked out for a mental disability—what with all of the disturbing and obscene images he had in his head moments before he opened the door to a bunch of teenagers playing a fucking _party game._

"Kendall!" Carlos almost ran over to the confused blond standing frozen in the doorway.

Kendall snapped back into it when Carlos had his arms wrapped around his neck and stood on his tiptoes to give Kendall a quick kiss.

"We were just about to start another game, you in?"

"Uh," Kendall didn't know what to say—he really wanted to talk to Carlos about the move that would be coming up god-knows-when.

But Carlos spoke for him, when he grabbed Kendall's slim wrist and pulled him towards the table. Kendall decided one game wouldn't suck, and then he could talk to Carlos.

Just one game.

But that entire game, he couldn't stop thinking about moving away again.

"Your turn, bro," his pong partner at his side with long hair and sunglasses on handed Kendall the ping-pong ball. Kendall took the ball and tossed it basketball style, and did a ridiculous dance with his partner when he sunk it in. Carlos and his partner laughed, gladly picking up the cup that the ball landed in and took one large gulp each.

There were several times throughout the round that Kendall and Carlos made eye contact—each time Kendall wished that the short, bubbly Latino could see the hurt in his eyes. He didn't want to say goodbye to Carlos. Just like he didn't want to say goodbye to Logan.

After the game was over, Kendall flopped down on Carlos' bed with a sigh while the rest of the kids talked and laughed to the side. His mind was starting to get fuzzy, with a fluttery feeling that the small amount of beer he had consumed supplied. All of a sudden there was a dip in the bed next to him, telling him that the only guy he wanted to talk to right now was next to him.

"Hi," Carlos smiled as Kendall turned his head to look at the cute boy next to him.

"Hi there," Kendall smiled back weakly, not letting what he had to say go.

"What's wrong?" Carlos placed a hand on Kendall's cheek, searching his face for answers. "You seem distracted. Kinda look like you feel guilty or something."

Kendall groaned before scrubbing his hands over his face.

"I have to tell you something," Kendall sat up, Carlos following.

"You're not pregnant are you?" Carlos giggled, obviously a little more drunk that Kendall was. "Cause that might be bad. I'd have to get a job."

"No," Kendall chuckled dryly. "I just…uh," he struggled to let the words he was so used to saying out. Maybe because this was the first place he really liked 'living' in for a while now. "I'm moving again."

He watched as Carlos processed the information, thanking god that it was a slow process due to the amount of alcohol he had consumed already. Finally, a sign of sadness registered on Carlos' face. His eyes dropped to his lap, where his hands were folded neatly.

"Again?" he whimpered. "To where?"

"Yeah again," Kendall sighed. "New York City."

"But you just got here…" Carlos wouldn't make eye contact with the blond.

Kendall immediately started having flashbacks to two weeks back, where he was giving the same speech to Logan. Except this time, it was even worse. Carlos, besides being just as sexy as a shirtless Zac Efron, also had a fragile, adorable, puppy dog side.

And Kendall hated to break that glass box of emotions Carlos had tucked inside.

"You can come back and visit though, right? Could you do that?" Carlos pouted, reached over and rest his hand on Kendall's thigh.

"Hopefully, I'm not sure," Kendall focused on the hand that was slowly moving up his leg, giving him goosebumps.

"Damn," Carlos suddenly stood up before pushing Kendall back so he was laying flat down on the bed. "I was _really_ starting to like you, Kenny," Carlos purred, all hints of sadness gone, now replaced with absolute lust. He then straddled Kendall's hips. "But _hey_, we can do _this _one last time," he winked before he started tugging at the hem of Kendall's shirt.

And that's when Kendall let out a sigh of relief, knowing that he had dropped the news on Carlos, and that everything was going to be all right.

Somewhat.

* * *

"Five! Four! Three! Two—Happy New Years!"

Kendall shouted along with everyone else in Carlos' house as he held his little Latino friend's hand tightly. He smiled at all of the people around him hugging and cheering—singing along with the Auld Lange Syne tune that was blasting on the TV.

Turns out that no matter where Kendall was on New Year's, the celebration would always be on the ABC channel with Ryan Seacrest—_well there's one thing that makes him feel at home._

Suddenly he felt Carlos tugging at his arm.

"I hear it's bad luck to not start a new year out with a kiss," Carlos smiled, with sadness hidden behind those pretty brown eyes.

"Is it?" Kendall tried to be as genuine as possible with his smile, feeling pretty guilty. He didn't _mean_ to ruin Carlos' night.

"Oh shut up," Carlos reached a hand up to the back of Kendall's neck and pulled the blond down to connect their lips. When they pulled apart, Carlos simply grinned and said, "There."

Kendall looked down at his shorter friend, thankful to have met someone so amazing.

"Now you'll have good luck wherever you end up this year," Carlos gave his hand a squeeze, before pulling Kendall closer to the TV where the camera was showing Times Square—full of cheering people and couples singing and kissing together to the tune of Frank Sinatra's "New York New York".

Kendall looked fondly at the people in the square, looking so happy and in love with the city they were celebrating the start of a new year in. Hopefully he'd be able to fit in there with them, not that he wanted to. He didn't want to leave this moment with Carlos—surrounded by all of the friendly strangers he'd met in one night, one night out of two short weeks.

"That's where I'll be next," Kendall pointed to a tall building that the camera got a shot of overlooking the celebration in the square. "The Knight Hotel, Times Square, New York City."

Carlos leaned his head against Kendall's shoulders, not moving his eyes from the brightly lit and confetti-filled TV screen.

"Well now I know where you'll be," Carlos chuckled over the surrounding noise of drunken teenagers, and the sweet sound of thousands of people singing along to New York City's theme song. "Right there," he pointed at the building, no brighter than the surrounding buildings—but not an insignificant one.

"Exactly. And we'll still talk," Kendall wrapped his arm around Carlos' shoulder, wanting this friendship to last like the last one with Logan did. "You can call or text me whenever, you know I'm free," Kendall snorted.

For the next hour or so, people started to clear out of the house slowly. Right before one o'clock, Mrs. Garcia got home. As soon as she walked into the door, after being surprised by seeing her boss' son, Kendall, in her house—announced that she was going to bed, and that the house had to be clean before she woke up in the morning.

Kendall helped Carlos clean up, starting on the second floor, working their way down.

When they made their way into the living room, they were exhausted and were barely able to clean up the last room.

"My arms," Carlos complained after finishing scrubbing the glass coffee table with Windex. "So sore."

"Shh," Kendall chuckled. "At least your mom didn't lose her cool."

"Only cause you're in the house, Senor Knight," Carlos giggled.

"I hate it when people call me Mr. Knight," Kendall shivered. "That's another thing that's gonna suck in New York! They're all going to call me 'sir' or 'Mr. Knight'. I'm going to have to start all over again," Kendall groaned, throwing the last beer can in sight into the overflowing garbage bag they dragged through the house together.

"Oh, boohoo," Carlos laughed. "I'm sure being called 'sir' isn't all that awful. In fact, I think I should be called sir from now on," Carlos straightened up as he spoke.

"Trust me," Kendall plopped down on the couch, finally closing his eyes. "It gets old. _Fast_."

Kendall kept his eyes closed as he listened to Carlos tie the garbage bag—filled with clinking cans, bottles and plastic cups.

"Just like moving around. I'm so done with it." Kendall said after he felt Carlos drop down next to him on the couch. "I wish I didn't have to go, 'Litos." Carlos took the liberty of tangling his limbs into Kendall's—telling Kendall that he wasn't about to leave just yet.

A couple minutes of sitting with each other in silence, Kendall yawned.

"I should probably go," he sat up, gently helping a tired Carlos get up. They made their way to the front door, before they pulled each other in for one last hug.

"Just…swear you'll keep in touch?" Carlos rested a hand on Kendall's cheek, looking deeply into Kendall's bottle green eyes.

"Yes," Kendall laughed. "I will, I promise."

"Okay," Carlos smiled. "Well…have fun," he shrugged, before shoving his hands into his front pockets. Kendall leaned down for one last kiss to remember Carlos by—and he was not disappointed.

"Thanks," Kendall pulled away and started his journey down the driveway. "Thanks for all the fun."

"Anytime," Carlos blushed. "If you're ever back in Miami, you know where to find me," he called after Kendall as he disappeared into the darkness.

"Long night?" Jon Knight asked as Kendall entered the suite with a thin layer of sweat from the sticky nighttime air on his walk home.

"Yeah," Kendall grunted, more than a little bit upset he just said goodbye for what was _probably_ forever to Carlos.

"Hey Kendall?" Jon stopped Kendall as he tried to pass by without a word to his father.

"What?" Kendall didn't even turn to acknowledge his father.

"I promise you," the hotel chairman started, but Kendall was already prepping himself for a promise that probably would not be kept. "We'll make our New York trip long."

"Yeah, whatever," Kendall mumbled before he was once again stopped.

"Kendall," Jon called sternly after his son. "Look at me."

Kendall obeyed his father's wishes and turned on his heels after stuffing his hands into his front pockets.

"What?" he asked with a snap to it.

"I promise you. At least four months in New York. Right now."

_What? Four months?_

Kendall couldn't help but let his jaw drop to the floor after that statement.

"Are you fucking kidding me?" was his only reaction.

"Nope," Jon shook his head. "Four whole months."

_What could possibly be in New York that his dad wanted so badly?_

This is where Kendall's mind started to change—slowly, yet surely.

"And we would stay in one spot. Not like, different areas of New York. Not the tri-state area. Just the hotel in Times Square," Kendall raised an eyebrow, solidifying the offer.

"Yessir," Jon nodded nonchalantly.

_Okay Kendall, something's up._

"What's the catch?" Kendall crossed his arms over his chest while stifling a yawn.

"No catch," Jon shook his head. "No catch at all."

_Take it or leave it._

Kendall closed his eyes and let out a deep breath.

"Fine," his eyes remained closed. "But if you back out you're in the dog house," he opened his eyes for the purpose of sending an accusing glare in which his father only dodged with his confidence.

"Sounds okay to me," his father shrugged. "Do you want to shake on it?"

"No," Kendall took a step closer to his room.

"I'll wait on that shake."

* * *

Packing up and moving out of Miami was harder than it ever was in Chicago, Green Bay, and all those other places that Kendall couldn't even keep track of combined. But somehow he dragged himself out of bed New Year's morning, got his suitcase and backpack ready, and got on a plane to New York City.

"You know, I'm still waiting on that handshake," Kendall's father made small talk as they maneuvered their way through the crowds of travelers in John F. Kennedy airport.

"You'll get it when I think you deserve it," Kendall only half-teased with his father. "We haven't even gotten to the hotel yet, how do I know there's still not catch to your four month promise?"

Jon only winked at his smart-ass son while they waited for their suitcases at baggage claim.

"Hee-uh, Mistah Knight sir," a hotel employee with a thick New York accent assigned to pick up the two Knight boys offered Kendall a hand. "Let me take ya bags, sir."

Kendall only shook his head while mumbling to himself, hoping the employee didn't hear his complaints about being called 'sir'.

After about a forty-five minute drive, the hotel limo made its way into the outskirts of the famous city of New York. Traveling through the endless Lincoln tunnel made Kendall absolutely restless—he couldn't wait to see the skyscrapers and huge buildings at the end of the tunnel up close again.

Kendall watched as the driver effortlessly drove through the packed city, tourists and 'natives' everywhere they could fit.

"Tourist season," the driver commented after the car tires screeched to a halt for someone crossing the road at a bad time. "They'sa don't even know what they'sa doin' around hee-uh. Ya know?"

Kendall listened as his father asked pointless questions like, "We'll be just fine around here. We'll be natives in no time, isn't that right Kendall?"

"I'm sure you two Knights are gonna be just fine, you's a gonna fit right in, huh?"

Kendall ignored everything the two men in the front seat were saying as he continued to gaze at the amazing buildings and city culture around him.

"Well, here we ahh, have a good day, and a happy New Yee-uh," the driver tipped his hat towards the two men in his car as he pulled in front of the hotel Kendall saw on TV the night before with Carlos.

As soon as Kendall was out of the limo though, there were shouts and shutter noises coming from every direction.

"James! Mr. Diamond over here! James!"

_James…? Oof._

Kendall was almost shoved to the ground by some moving figure coming from behind him at a fast speed.

"Fuck," he mumbled while trying regain his balance and search for the mysterious force that almost pushed him on his face. As he looked behind him there was a swarm of paparazzi, all taking millions of pictures in seconds.

"Mr. Diamond! Smile for the camera!"

As Kendall continued to search, his eyes landed on a tall hooded figure wearing sunglasses nearly running into the revolving doors of the hotel.

That asshole.

"Come on, son," Jon pushed his son towards the doors into his new 'home', despite the 'almost humiliation' in front of what seemed like thousands of cameras.

"Here we go," Kendall muttered to himself as he entered the doors, and said goodbye to the cameras while he continued to mumble to himself.

_If this is what New York is going to be like..._

* * *

**OKAY SO really shitty chapter, extremely poorly edited, I just wanted to get something out there so you guys know I'm not quitting. Now you all know who's gonna meet who next chapter, and I might even have something up by the weekend. ;)**

**Please R&R, please please please. I need some kind of confidence to keep this going :/**

**Xx**

**Sarah**


	4. Flashing Lights

**Okay so I'm late. I suck. I know.**

**Please excuse grammar and spelling at the moment, I'm a mess. **

**Exams will be over soon . I can write you a quality chapter then.**

**For now, thank you to SWACGleekFreak, Faith777, seddielover1311, KEALY KAMES, DeniseDEMD, icanloveyoumorethanthis, Sassy Kames, roxxiepoxxie, NikiilovesJessee, and annabellex2. **

**Chapter 4:**

* * *

Kendall was amazed when he pushed through the revolving doors into a beautiful, marble-floored lobby. A huge Christmas tree decked out in white and gold ornaments sat in the corner of the large room, next to a huge fireplace with a roaring fire in it. A few hotel-residents sat around the fire on the comfortable couches and armchairs while reading and enjoying the warmth the flames supplied.

Kendall looked around in awe while his father checked them in—another suite was reserved for the two of them, more than half of which was being paid for by the hotel itself.

"Your room is on the eleventh floor, we all hope you'll enjoy your stay here with us, Jon—I mean, Mr. Knight," the blonde-haired woman the concierge desk stuttered. She then handed the two men their room-keys. She winked at the older Knight, which Kendall found immediately caught and found sketchy.

"Thank you, Deb," Jon winked right back, holding on to one side of the key while she held the other longer than necessary.

_Something is definitely up there, _Kendall raised an eyebrow as the woman bit at her bottom lip, eyes not leaving his fathers. It was when the phone rang that she jumped and looked away from Jon's eyes, only to shrug sympathetically at him and take the call.

"Knight Hotel Concierge, can I help you?" she almost purred into the phone, eyes going straight back to Jon's as Kendall rolled his eyes and walked away from the counter with a grunt of disapproval.

After making his way over to the elevator hallway, he pressed the 'up' button next to a set of gold-shiny elevator doors and waited. He looked at his reflection in the doors and sighed, lifting a hand to push a piece of hair out from over his eyes. The elevator door made a sharp "ding" noise before the doors opened and he stepped inside.

"Wait!"

His father ran into the elevator only seconds before Kendall could close them.

"I thought you were talking to _Deb_," Kendall pressed the '11' button and leaned against the mirrored wall.

"No," Jon fidgeted with the buttons on the front of his coat before they finally popped open and he could breath again. "It's hot in here."

"You mean _Deb_ is hot," Kendall rolled his eyes. "Is this why you wanted to come to New York? Good-looking employees at your feet?"

"No," Jon scoffed. "Don't worry about what I do here. Worry about your schoolwork or something," he looked down at his feet, clearly not having a valid response for his disappointed son.

"Whatever, Dad," Kendall was quick to exit the elevator as soon as the doors were open and made his way down the hallway. He spun the key ring with the room key around his finger as he passed a suite, finally getting to theirs. He stuck the key into the door and pushed on it. Despite his already irritated mood, he was immediately pleased with the suite. One step in, and he could see that the wall opposite was really just a huge window overlooking Times Square.

He dropped his bag in excitement before running over to the window and looked down at the tourists and civilians, all stepping on the confetti and trash left over from the New Year's Eve celebration last night.

Kendall watched in awe, looking at the life he saw from the window of his limousine only minutes ago from a different point of view.

"Pretty cool, isn't it?" Kendall felt a hand clap down on his shoulder. He kept his eyes fixed on the square down below, not acknowledging his dad for a moment.

"It's pretty cool," Kendall shrugged.

Yeah, cool was an understatement.

"But I have to ask," Kendall shook his father's hand off of his shoulder. "Did you move us here for Deb? And or other females? Be honest."

Kendall's father tried to stand strong when he said "No." He shook his head, but couldn't keep eye contact—just like Kendall feared he would.

But what did it matter if his dad was having romances on the side? He wasn't married anymore, and hey, _he promised four full months._

"So what would you like to do for dinner? I know there's a famous Japanese restaurant right down the street—"

Kendall's ears stopped working after the words Japanese restaurant—he hadn't realized he was starving up until then.

And he loved sushi.

Absolutely loved it.

So with that, Kendall forgot everything about his father's relationships with female employees at the hotel and let his mind wander to all of the good sushi he'd be eating in a couple of short hours.

Soon Jon left to greet the hotel's staff board and manager—leaving Kendall all alone to the huge room.

He spent time getting lost in the bathroom he had all to himself in the suite. The room was complete with a glass shower stall, a large porcelain tub in the center, a huge mirror with a deep sink and a vanity desk sitting comfortably in the corner; complete with a comfy-looking chair.

Kendall then spent the next couple hours laying back on his huge bed.

Seriously, it was huge.

It could fit at least five people in it—_comfortably._

He watched some of the shows he needed to catch up on while waiting for his father to come back—stomach grumbling in anticipation of a wonderful Japanese meal.

He focused back on to the television screen as he noticed _Entertainment Television _was starting up—the annoying tabloid headlines flashing across the scene. He raised an eyebrow at the ridiculous stories.

_Who cared if Dr. Hollywood got arrested in LA for driving while smoking weed this week?_

"And later the top story of the night," the newscaster began as a picture of the world-famous Dak Zevon showed up on the screen, along with an unfamiliar face at a red-carpet event. "Singer-song writer Dak Zevon cheats on his supermodel boyfriend Ja—"

"Lame," Kendall snorted, shutting the TV off before he processed any of the bullshit the blonde woman announced on the screen.

He definitely did not care about the most stuck up celebrity he'd ever heard of—Dak Zevon.

Not even if he was dating a supermodel, or, _dated_.

Kendall heard the door click in the other room—meaning his father was back to cure his stomach's desperate desire for food. He jumped up immediately as he heard the door close and grabbed his jacket from the armchair sitting next to the window.

"Ready to go?" his father was looking down at his phone as Kendall got to the door.

"Yup," Kendall shrugged, looking down at his laced up, old and beaten Vans.

Kendall was relieved when they stepped outside of the hotel to see that there was no paparazzi anymore—nobody waiting for that 'James Diamond' dude who nearly pushed him over earlier in front of the thousands of cameras.

"We get a lot of celebrities here apparently," Mr. Knight seemingly read Kendall's mind as they both kept an eye out for the annoying cameramen. "So the hotel has a policy against the paparazzi—they can't come inside at any cost."

The two weaved through the hoards of people—a lot of which were tourists.

Both Jon and Kendall could tell by the way none of them spoke English, or had a thick European accent.

"And Deb told me by next week—" Jon stopped he held a hand out to stop Kendall from stepping in front of a speeding car at the crosswalk. "That after this weekend everybody will be gone. The city is completely different, it's great."

Kendall ignored the fact that his father had been talking to Deb again at some point while he was running around the hotel that afternoon, and continued to trudge through the cold, concrete jungle.

"Here we are," Jon stopped in front of a sleek black building. "Nobu, NYC."

"Irashaimase!"

A chorus of Japanese words flew at and greeted the two men as soon as they stepped inside.

"Konbanwa, Mr. Knight!" a hostess that stood by the door welcomed them. "We have a table ready for you!"

They were led deeper into the restaurant, hit with smells of different plates of fish and sushi as they passed by the tables. They were seated at a table next to the tinted windows. Kendall was guessing that the people on the sidewalk outside couldn't see into the restaurant, but he was also guessing he could be wrong. He could have sworn he made eye contact with several people as they walked by.

Kendall enjoyed the time they spent letting their eyes graze over the shiny menus—there was just way too much to pick from. His mouth watered at the sound of every dish, he was ready to order just about everything the restaurant had to offer.

"Right over here, Mr. Zevon," Kendall was broken out of his reverie as he heard a certain someone being seated at a table right next to theirs. His head snapped up and his eyes nearly bulged out of his head when he saw none other than Dak Zevon—in the living flesh.

The pretty-boy sat down, not even glancing in Kendall's direction.

Of course, Kendall was okay with that. He had already made his judgments just from the _look_ of the star—and he _always_ trusted his gut instinct. This time was not going to be any different, even if he had been spared a nod or a wave from the celebrity.

Dak whipped out his phone instead of looking at his menu.

"Hi guys my name is Jo," a pretty blonde girl came over to their table with an order pad in her slim hands. "What can I get you two?" Kendall let his father take over to order a good portion of the menu for the both of them, as he watched Dak type something quickly into his phone. He wore a smirk on that goddamn face of his—as if he was holding a huge dirty secret that he wanted everyone to know about.

Kendall looked away as their waitress, Jo, came back with a bowl of edamame and tofu for him and his father to snack on before the real feasting began.

"So, what do you think of the hotel?" his father leaned back in his chair after popping a bean into his mouth.

Kendall shrugged as he took a bite of the tofu, eyes fluttering at the taste of the delicious food.

"It's nice," he swallowed, leaning back in his chair as well. His eyes flicked back to Dak as the celebrity stood up to greet someone who had just walked in. Kendall turned his head fully to look at the guy walking, not even trying to be subtle anymore. His mouth went agape as he noticed how ridiculously attractive this guy was, and how it _wasn't_ the supermodel he saw in the picture with Dak on TV earlier.

The newscaster _did_ say Dak was cheating on the supermodel, so maybe it _really was_ true.

"Hey babe," Kendall could have sworn he heard come from the new guy's mouth.

"Hey Beau," Dak said back before leaning in for a kiss.

A flash went off throughout their side of the restaurant, and both Kendall and his dad turned their heads in shock to look out the window. Sure enough, there was a man with a camera grinning through the window and waving at Dak.

Huh, so the windows _were_ see-through.

"Perfect," Kendall heard Dak laugh while Jo came back and set all of their food down in front on the table.

"James is going to be so mad."

* * *

After a quiet meal of Kendall and his father swallowing amazing sushi, dodging the pictures that the cameras pressed up against the window were taking, and eavesdropping on Dak, they finally paid the expensive check and left the cheating celebrity and his apparent lover behind.

And wouldn't you know it?

When the two Knight men got back to the hotel at nearly nine o'clock, not even slightly surprised to run into a group of more paparazzi.

They had their cameras ready to go, ready to attack the next poor victim on their way into the hotel.

"You go on up," Mr. Knight told his son as they made their way towards the concierge desk. "I have some questions I need to ask—"

"Deb?" Kendall raised an eyebrow.

"You're funny," Jon rolled his eyes.

Kendall shook his head before the flashing of cameras in front of the hotel all of a sudden distracted him. Good thing he was inside this time, he didn't need to risk more embarrassment in front of those picture-taking demons.

Instead of dwelling on the look of the cameras outside, he shuffled over to elevators and hopped in.

He was reaching for the 'close' button when all of a sudden he heard, "Hold it!"

A tall hooded guy jumped in without another word, which kind of annoyed Kendall. A 'thank you' would be nice.

Kendall was in the middle of complaining in his head when all of a sudden, the hooded guy standing in the elevator minding his own business looked familiar. He reached over in front of Kendall before pulling away, realizing that his floor button was already pushed: eleven.

"Have I, uh…seen you before?" Kendall couldn't help but ask. This guy looked _crazy_ familiar.

The tall, tan guy looked up, eyes skeptical. He remained silent, eyes scanning Kendall as if he had mental issues.

"Never mind," Kendall looked away, annoyed. _You don't have to be such a princess._

"Maybe," the other guy finally spoke up, surprising Kendall. "Probably."

"I'm sorry," Kendall blushed, looking over again. The guy was ridiculously good looking, dressed nice, and well built.

_And so goddamn familiar looking!_

"It's okay," he shrugged. "I get that a lot." He looked over and smiled at Kendall, giving him the chance to look at two perfect hazel eyes. He reached up and took his hood off, revealing a head of hair perfectly styled.

The rest of the ride up was spent in silence.

"Hello?" the hazel-eyed guy suddenly answered his phone. "He what?"

Kendall tried his best not to strain his ears to hear the person on the end of the phone line.

"Well he's an asshole, that's why," the guy looked over at Kendall and shot him an apologetic look.

"We're done, it's over," he finished with a sigh. "I'll talk to you later."

He shoved his phone back in his pocket at the same time the elevator doors dinged and opened to the suite floor, the eleventh floor.

"Sorry about that," they walked out and down the hallway together.

"S'okay," Kendall shrugged. "I'll see you later," he stopped in front of his room door and looked over his shoulder as the handsome guy kept walking to the end of the hall. Maybe they had seen each other at some point today in the hotel?

Impossible—Kendall had spent all day in his room, except for when they first arrived and was knocked over by—wait.

"I'm James, by the way. James Diamond."

James freakin' Diamond.

* * *

**Well?**

**:)**

**xx**

**Sarah**


	5. Concrete Jungle

**I know.**

**THIS IS SO LATE.**

**I'll just shut up, you guys are probably too mad at me to even listen to any excuses I have. But midterms are over now, and all of my major projects and papers are completely out of the way.**

**I'm free.**

**I'm going to start updating regularly, so nobody stabs me.**

**Thank you to DramaJen89, LoveSparkle, Sassy Kames, NikkiilovesJessee, KEALYKAMES, annabellex2 and child who is cool for reviewing. :)**

Chapter 5:

* * *

James Diamond.

Kendall met _the_ James Diamond.

That guy who _kind of_ pushed him over.

And Kendall was _kind of_ annoyed.

As soon as he got into the Knight suite he whipped out his phone and shed his jacket, hanging it up on the hook on the wall.

He opened his phone's browser while kicking his sneakers off and leaving them in the door area messily, not exactly caring if his father tripped on them on his way in. He quickly typed in 'James Diamond' in the Google bar before retreating into his room and flopping on to the huge bed.

At the top of the results that came up, there was a picture of the face he'd seen only minutes ago. He rolled his eyes as another picture of James popped up—it was of him walking into the Hotel lobby this morning, with himself blatantly losing his balance in the corner of the camera lens.

"Supermodel," Kendall gathered information. "Became famous when Kuda hired him to be the face of the company at the young age of fifteen," he read James' Internet profile aloud to himself. "Well he is pretty fuckin' good looking," he muttered.

He groaned as he threw his phone next to him on the bed and laid back, slowly closing his eyes. He then decided it was time to block celebrities out of his head for a bit.

As soon as his eyes were closed though, he saw Dak Zevon kissing his 'secret' lover, Beau.

"_Hey babe."_

"_Hey Beau."_

And just as if he were reliving the memory, a camera flash went off in his mind as he continued to think about the two in the restaurant.

"_Perfect, James will be so mad."_

Kendall opened his eyes to the ceiling as he remembered Dak mentioning _a_ James—was it possible that he meant James _Diamond_?

_Oh man._

Kendall sat up quickly when he realized that he hadn't recognized James from their altercation on the street, but from the picture he had seen on _Entertainment Television_ earlier on TV.

Dak indeed looked happy as could be with his arm pulling tight around James' waist in a picture on the TV—and that's exactly where Kendall recognized him.

Kendall reached for the remote, switching back to the ET channel he had been on earlier.

"And we're back with your top stories of the night," a woman wearing an atrocious fuchsia sweater announced as more tabloid headlines flashed across the screen. "Dak Zevon is caught in NYC's fab restaurant Nobu with a friend?" she said with a grin.

Kendall's jaw dropped when a picture of Dak and Beau kissing popped up on the screen. Because, well he saw that picture _while it was being taken._

But here's the real reason why his jaw dropped: Kendall's in the bottom left corner of the picture, looking pretty pathetic while he stared at Dak kissing his 'friend'. _Great_.

His phone buzzed on his side, a text was displayed on the lit up screen from Carlos.

_**Dude, you're on crappy tabloid TV,**_the text read. Kendall shook his head as he looked back up, thankful that the picture was off the screen.

Kendall bit his tongue to hold back a growl of some form.

_**I'm practically famous, there's a picture of me losing my balance when you search James Diamond :(**_

"After James Diamond publicly announced their breakup earlier via twitter, Zevon was all smooches and smiles for the cameras at the famous Japanese restaurant by Times Square," the fuschia sweater lady kept talking about Dak and James' relationship.

_Oh no,_ Kendall's smiling face fell after his text sent when he looked back up at the TV and saw the picture of Dak and Beau again with Kendall's face blatantly interrupting the photo. He shut his eyes and fell back into his laying position.

What would he say or do if he ever got to see James again?

He would probably give him a piece of his own mind.

"_Are you really that thick and inconsiderate to push me over and not see if I was okay?"_

Kendall smirked with his eyes kept closed, just imagining the satisfaction he'd get out of calling out a celebrity. He'd be so high and mighty—but who was he kidding?

He sighed, scrubbing a hand over his face.

Kendall knew he both wouldn't and couldn't do that, it just wasn't really who he was. James was pretty nice in the elevator, wasn't at all what Kendall expected a supermodel to be like in person.

Kendall closed his eyes so he could leave himself alone with his thoughts, thinking about what he'd _actually_ do if he got to see James again.

But why did Kendall let himself spend time thinking about James? He had the entirety of New York City he had to explore—before he could waste any of his time thinking about some _supermodel_. However he spent it though, he was going to have four months of free time to fuck around.

His dad had promised.

* * *

Kendall woke up to a shooting pain in his legs and his back, with the sound of early morning soap operas in the background supporting his groans and moans of pain. He had apparently fallen asleep the night before in an uncomfortable position, thinking about what he'd do on his first full day in New York City.

"You have to try a pretzel for me! And a hot dog," Logan told him over the phone as Kendall set foot on the sidewalks of Time Square for the second time that morning, ready to start his adventures. On his way out of the room the first time, he'd told his father that he would be fine in the sweatshirt he had pulled on, only to be exceptionally wrong.

The second time he left the hotel, he was finally ready. He had added a coat on top of the sweatshirt, as well as his favorite gray beanie and a red scarf.

"Aren't they extremely unhealthy?" Kendall squished through some people as he continued to speak to Logan—not really having a plan or a destination, which might have been good given the fact that Kendall had never been to New York City ever before.

"You have to try one! It's like how you know you've experienced New York!"

Kendall looked over at one of the carts where the sketchy men of New York handed out messy hot dogs and oversalted pretzels and felt his stomach lurch.

"Maybe later, Loges. I should go," Kendall noticed he was creating a traffic jam of people by standing in one spot while he spoke to Logan. "I'll call you later."

"Alright," Logan chuckled. "Don't get lost, don't get shot, and try one of those hot dogs!"

"Okay," Kendall snorted, mumbling apologies to people trying to push past him before Logan said goodbye and hung up.

Kendall decided to walk over to a building to stand next to where he could decide what he wanted to do and where he wanted to go.

People bumped into him and rolled their eyes at him as he tried to go in the opposite direction of the flow of traffic to stand on the corner of a glassy building. He opened his map app on his phone and searched different sites like the Statue of Liberty, Rockefeller center, the Empire State building, the Met and the campus of Columbia University.

"Hey, kid, do ya want a tour?" a man holding brochures came over to disturb him. "I got a bus leavin' in five minutes. You could see everything in an hour."

"Uh," Kendall looked up from his phone and stared at the chubby man with the raspy voice that was offering him a tour. "No, I think I'm just going to walk around, thanks."

The man squinted at Kendall before shaking his head. "Don't get lost kid," the sketchy tour guide waddled away to harass other random people in the square.

_Who does he think he is? _Kendall thought to himself_. You're not going to get lost. _

With that, Kendall stepped away from the building and started moving with the herd of people, deeper into the heart of New York City.

* * *

"Shit."

Kendall stared down at his phone map in confusion.

Kendall was lost.

He admitted it to himself, and to whatever spirits or Gods that cursed him with such poor navigation skills.

He was super lost.

Somehow being in one of the biggest cities in the world made it the situation that much more of an issue.

His phone had played his faithful servant all day—slaving away under Kendall's confused control. It led him from the Empire State Building, to the New York Stock Exchange building, to Ground Zero, then to Columbia, the Upper East Side, back to Park Avenue where he spent a good deal of his time window shopping at some of the most expensive stores he'd ever seen. It was now six-thirty, and Kendall's map was finally calling it quits on him. Which was fine, but it was getting dark, and Kendall needed to get back to the hotel at _some_ point.

Kendall finally gave up on his phone and put it in his coat pocket. He shoved his hands into his pockets as well and started walking. He knew he was on the corner of Park Avenue and East 72nd street.

Which, maybe, to a New Yorker, would be very informative as far as location goes. But to Kendall, that meant just as much as a pile of rocks and sand. He crossed the street so that he was off of Park Avenue, and continued down 72nd street. It got to a point where the volume of the noises the cars made as they flew down Park avenue was considerably low, which kind of worried Kendall. The quieter it got, the darker it seemed, and the more lost he felt.

Soon he got to the end of the street, and noticed that there was a large amount of trees in front of him.

"Oh great," Kendall rolled his eyes before looking both ways at the street he came across—5th Avenue. Kendall almost pulled his phone out to try to save himself again, but then stopped himself short as he crossed the street.

_72__nd__ and 5__th__?_ He was right at the central of Central Park.

He grinned and finished crossing the street, knowing he had found the place he had wanted to go all day. He had heard about the long paths winding through the park that never got boring, the large spaces to sit and clear thoughts.

There were other people in the park, even though it was below freezing and getting dark. Most of them looked as though they were just passing through, or maybe they were on their way home.

Kendall of course had no plans and was headed nowhere, seeing as his father hadn't shown any concern for him all day and he wasn't due back at the hotel at any point soon.

Kendall didn't know where he was going, or in what direction he was headed—but he had walked almost a mile before he got really cold, and it was way too dark. That was when he decided that a daytime trip might be more practical.

As soon as he made it to a lamppost next to a large statue of a man on a horse, he pulled out his phone and found that he was at a north side landmark in the park. The Knight Hotel—according to his phone, was 3.2 miles south of where he was standing at the moment.

Kendall wasn't exactly shocked, he had been walking all day. It was no wonder he had conquered so much space by foot. 3.2 miles was less than a quarter of the distance he had traveled in total throughout the day, so he simply turned around in his spot and started walking south, towards the red Times Square dot. He continued to watch the blue dot that represented him make it closer to the southern edge of the park before—

"Look out!"

* * *

"Hey, can you hear me?" Kendall was quickly growing annoyed by the voice that kept prodding him awake, pulling him out of his sleep. "Wake up. Please?" Kendall groaned, hoping the voice was just part of one of his fucked up dreams and he could roll over to fall back asleep.

"No," Kendall grumbled. "Let me sleep," he turned over, hoping to find a comfortable spot. Unfortunately though, Kendall's brain finally got the message that he was _not_ in bed.

"Oh thank god," a sigh of relief came from somewhere. "Hey, open your eyes."

Kendall did so, eyesight going blurry almost immediately.

"Shit," Kendall closed his eyes and tried to sit up. "Where am I?"

"Central park," the voice, although more relieved than before, was still a bit panicked.

"Oh fuck," Kendall opened his eyes again to look around, seeing that his vision was now relatively normal. "What happened?" Kendall closed his eyes to rest them again, hoping for some sense of memory to magically present itself.

"You uh—well you were walking and I wasn't paying attention while I was running so I sort of slammed into you," the voice spoke. "You might have hit your head really hard."

Kendall understood that some New Yorkers were inconsiderate, but this guy? That was a one-hundred percent dipshit move.

"Oh my god," the guy spoke again after a few moments of silence. "I know you."

Kendall opened his eyes turned his head to the person that had nearly sent him to the hospital—only to nearly pass out. _Again_.

"James what the fuck?" Kendall almost hissed—but kept his dignity. He glared up at James, who was towering over him while he remained on the ground. He was in running shorts and a fitted sweatshirt that did no shame to his beautiful muscles.

_Woah woah woah, beautiful?_

All of that so-called dignity Kendall was trying to preserve went straight to hell when he tried to stand up but immediately lost control of his legs. He pathetically fell forward into James.

"We're going to need to get a cab," James said after grabbing Kendall so that he could stand.

"I'm fine I'll just walk—maybe I won't actually get run over this time," Kendall snorted. He supposed he was being a little too harsh, most people probably would have kept on running if they had hit him. So the sass was a little much.

But James probably couldn't blame him, right?—Kendall's head hurt and now he was cranky. James helped him up and snaked an arm around Kendall's back—supporting him as they tried to walk towards an exit.

"No," James only pulled Kendall tighter against his body when Kendall tried to push away. "I'm really sorry about this, I really am. Just let me get us a cab and—"

"No," Kendall tried to pull away, only realizing that his 'accident' had caused all of his strength to disappear.

That, or James was just _that much stronger_.

"Don't make me carry you," James was now sort of chuckling. "Cause I _can and will_ do it," he threatened, finding this sort of humorous.

"You think this is funny, awesome," Kendall gave up with his resisting, letting James lead him over towards an exit.

"No, I'm sorry," James slapped the hand that wasn't helping Kendall over his mouth to stifle another chuckle. He removed it only to say "I'm just thinking—this happened yesterday too, didn't it?"

Kendall only turned his head to return a glare in James' direction—which resulted in James full on laughing.

"I'm sorry, you must think I'm such an asshole," James laughed. Kendall looked away, focusing on the steps that he needed to take to get to a taxi and then back to the hotel so he could sleep for the rest of his life. "I just, the paparazzi sometimes…"

"_You_ couldn't be an asshole," Kendall said with as much sarcasm as he could muster. "Why would you think that?"

"I'm sorry—" James waved down a taxi as soon as they were out of the park. "You know, I didn't catch your name last night."

Kendall chose to ignore him as the cab pulled over to the curb. James opened the door for Kendall and let him slide in first. "Knight Hotel, Times Square please," Kendall told the driver as James slid in next to him, pressing their arms against each other.

"James, I'm sitting," Kendall rolled his eyes. "I don't need your support anymore," Kendall tried to wiggle out of his situation of being smashed in between a cab door and a supermodel.

"Pushy," James chuckled. "You know, a billion girls _and_ guys would kill to be in your position right now."

"Literally?" Kendall kept his eyes out the window, trying not to grow any more attracted to the celebrity than the limited amount he allowed himself. "Because in my position, my head hurts and you're squishing my arm."

James sighed and moved the slightest bit to the right in the backseat of the cab, giving Kendall a tiny bit of room.

"Look, could we start over? I'll make it up to you," James pleaded Kendall with his eyes—which was a shame because Kendall refused to look anywhere near James, knowing he'd fall into the trap that _was_ a super hot guy.

Kendall closed his eyes and leaned back in his seat, his tiredness taking over him.

"Just get me home, James," Kendall gave in. He didn't _want_ to be mean to James—it was nothing like he'd imagined it. But he couldn't help it. He was tired, and hurting all over.

When the cab pulled up to the hotel doors, Kendall was half expecting a mob of paparazzi to be waiting for James, but thankfully they got inside without a flash going off anywhere. James helped Kendall all the way from the cab, to the elevators, all the way up to his door.

Kendall couldn't help but notice the pure guilt in James' eyes, which made him feel even worse about being an asshole. He didn't want James to feel bad anymore.

"Thanks," Kendall sighed, fumbling around in his pockets looking for his room key. "And look," Kendall pulled the key out and finally let himself make eye contact with James. "You're forgiven. I know you didn't mean to and all, and yesterday you were just running from a bad situation. I get it."

James' pretty hazel eyes started to glow again, his expression returning to that lively and passionate look he had on before Kendall had started firing snarky comments at him.

"Let me make it up to you, please—" James was searching for a word to finish his statement.

"Kendall," Kendall finished it for him as he slid the key into the lock and opened the door. "Kendall Knight."

"Knight, as in…Knight Hotel? Is that why you consider this place home?" James held the door open from the outside so Kendall could wobble in.

"Home?" Kendall snorted. "Not exactly. I'll see you around, James." Kendall offered a weak smile, resulting in a full on grin from James.

"I'm going to make it up to you, I promise," he said before bouncing out of sight and closing the door.

Kendall shivered at the word promise—it had been used too lightly in his life for the past year, thanks to his father.

But for some reason, he trusted James even though he run Kendall over twice in less than forty-eight hours.

A promise is a promise.

* * *

**It's 1 am and I want to sleep so please excuse spelling/grammar and other ungodly errors. I just wanted to update so no one hates me :(**

**I don't feel so good about this chapter again, but the real stuff starts now. :)**

**xx**

**Sarah**


	6. Stay

**Ugh no excuse again. I suck don't I?**

**Wait, don't answer that.**

**Thank you to those who still have faith in me…including LoveSparkle, Sassy Kames, NikiilovesJesse, CrazyKAMESFan13, DeniseDEMD and KEALY KAMES.**

**Without further ado,**

**Chapter 6:**

* * *

Kendall slipped into the suite quietly, hoping he could get into the bathroom to wash off some of the cuts and scrapes he had on his neck and cheek without his father catching him.

As soon as he started to take off his jacket though, a sharp pain shocked through his entire right arm.

"Fuck," Kendall stopped himself from shouting, but sure enough his father heard it and came straight to the entryway.

"What's wrong?" Jon asked, raking his eyes over Kendall. "What happened?"

"I…stubbed my toe?" Kendall lied pathetically, holding his right arm tightly with the left in utter pain.

"How did you get those cuts on your face? Kendall! What really happened?"

Kendall begrudgingly explained his 'fall' in the park—but didn't exactly say how he fell. His dad didn't need to know anything about James.

"C'mon, I'm taking you to the emergency clinic a couple blocks down," his dad said, giving Kendall no room to protest.

As they trudged through the cold weather, Kendall tried to figure out where the pain in his arm was coming from. James' persistent earlier requests for forgiveness and a chance to make everything up to Kendall had him smiling lightly. All of the nagging had distracted Kendall from the pain.

He cradled his injured right arm in his left as they walked; careful not to let any of the aggressive New York pedestrians bump into him and cause any extra pain to his now _throbbing _arm.

As they walked into the clinic the heated waiting room was almost sweltering compared to the frigid temperature outside. Despite the temperatures, he didn't even bother trying to take his jacket off. His arm—specifically around his elbow area—felt as if it were swollen underneath the outer layer.

He walked up to the desk to grab the papers necessary to see the doctor.

"Have I seen you before?" the woman behind the desk asked as she handed a clipboard over the desk to him. He looked down at the appointment papers on the clipboard and shrugged.

"Probably not," he wrote down his name and the Hotel's information as his home address.

"No…I think I have," the large African American woman leaned back in her reclining chair. "Wait! You were on ET last night! You were that funny kid in the corner of that picture of Dak Zevon," she laughed hysterically for a good minute. "Wait'll my daughter hears this."

He kept his head down as he finished filling out the forms and handed it back to her while she continued to laugh.

"Honey, the doctor will be with you in a second," she chuckled and rolled her desk chair over to a large filing cabinet against the wall.

"Thanks," he mumbled while he scratched the back of his neck and retreated from the desk to sit with his father.

His father didn't look up from his phone as he sat, on which he was furiously typing something.

"Hotel stuff?" Kendall asked, even though he really didn't care. His mind was focused on not giving into the pain in his arm.

"Yeah," his dad answered in a flat voice, eyes glued to the tiny little blackberry screen.

Kendall rolled his eyes just as the doctor walked into the waiting room and called out his name.

"What can I do for you, Kendall?" the doctor asked as they walked into a room. He pointed to an examination table without a word, ordering Kendall to sit. Kendall's dad took a seat next to him and continued to deal with his phone.

The doctor was a large guy. He had thick glasses on the bridge of his nose—and he kind of looked like a douche. _Bitters_, his nametag read.

Kendall pushed away the judgmental thoughts as he described what happened in the park—how he had been knocked over and unconscious for a minute or two, and how he had only noticed the pain a few minutes ago.

"I'm going to need you to take your jacket off," the doctor ordered, leaning against the sink across from the bed Kendall was seated on.

"Uh," Kendall swallowed—not sure if he'd be able to handle the pain that taking off his own jacket would cause him. "Sure." He winced as he pulled off the sleeve on his injured side.

Dr. Bitters watched in amusement, his double chin cushioning the smirk he had rested on his lips as Kendall tortured himself silently with his jacket.

Kendall inhaled deeply before he moved his sore right arm quickly to pull off the left sleeve. As soon as he had gotten the sleeve off of his bicep he opted to shaking the rest of it off so he didn't have to use his bad arm. Tears stung his eyes as he tried not to sob—the increasing pain too great to handle.

"Well judging by the fact that it took you about…" Bitters looked down at his wristwatch and snorted, "a full minute to get that jacket off, we're going to have to do some x-rays. It's likely you dislocated your shoulder—or possibly even fractured something in your arm or elbow. Follow me, clumsy."

Twenty minutes later—the x-rays were all done and Dr. Bitters was explaining the injuries to Kendall and his father. The prints of the x-ray showed a transparent arm so that they could all see the skinny bones.

"Here, Mr. Knight," Bitters held up the x-rays and pointed to Kendall's see-through elbow, "You can see that you _somehow_ managed to tear a ligament in your elbow _and _youfractured some of the bone around it. Nothing too serious, but if you were clumsy enough to fall a little bit harder you could have broken your arm."

"So what does that mean in terms of recovery?"

"He's going to have to wear his arm in a sling for a couple of weeks—he can take it off only when he's sleeping or bathing."

Kendall groaned quietly as Dr. Bitters continued to describe the healing process to his dad.

_It's not like he's going to make sure I follow these rules, _Kendall thought to himself.

"Hear that Kendall? Only three weeks."

* * *

"Dad I'm not wearing this. It's fucking annoying," Kendall complained as they walked from the clinic back to the hotel. At least people walking by were courteous and made sure they didn't exactly _slam_ into him when they saw his cast.

"You've got to. You heard what the doc said," Jon ignored his son's complaints as he lead the way back to the hotel by pushing through people headed in the opposite direction.

"But I can't move my arm at all," he groaned as he struggled to keep up.

"That's the point, Kendall."

"But it's stupid, I don't need it," Kendall sped up so that he was walking next to his father.

"You were almost crying before, you never come anywhere close to crying," Jon laughed. They reached the hotel doors, where Kendall caught the doorman giving him a pitiful look.

"I'm going to help out at the front desk. Deb had to leave early," Jon told Kendall. As if Kendall _cared_ about Deb.

"I'm going to get a shower, then take this damn arm thing off," Kendall muttered the second part only to himself.

After he left his dad at the concierge desk, Kendall learned what it was like to shower with one arm. Scrubbing shampoo into his dirty blonde locks with one hand was an issue. Then he had to wrap his towel around his waist with one hand only. That was an even _bigger_ issue.

Getting dressed?

The _biggest_ issue of them all.

Kendall opted to take his pain medications before he even bothered with his clothes. He managed to pull on a pair of boxers and wrapped the towel over his shoulders while he sat on his bed and waited for the meds to kick in. When he felt the consciousness of the pain in his arm start to fade away, he pulled on a pair of skinny jeans—which requires more jumping around to get into rather than hands to pull them on—and crew-neck sweatshirt.

He stared at the sling hanging on the back of the armchair by the window. He sighed while he ran a hand through his wet and messy hair.

"You're a shithead Kendall," he told himself as he gave in and picked up the sling to throw it over his head. "You shouldn't fucking wear this."

He continued to talk to himself while he adjusted the sling around his neck and arm. In the midst of all his grumbling and complaints to himself, his stomach started to audibly rumble.

He'd been so annoyed about his arm-sling he forgot about the hunger that had been pursuing his stomach ever since before James knocked him over in the park.

"Let's go get some grub, cripple," Kendall said aloud, mocking himself. He grabbed his key and headed downstairs to the bar and lounge area, where he planned on getting an appetizer or two to snack on.

There was a fair amount of people in the room, and it was dark enough that Kendall was seated without anyone giving him or his crippled status funny looks. He knew he was being a baby about the whole situation—but it was frustrating. This was _not_ how he planned to spend his first couple weeks in the big city; crippled.

He closed his eyes as he listened to the man playing on the grand piano by the bar. It was no secret that Knight Hotel in New York City was known for its class. Businessmen and women, celebrities and others traveling from all over the world came and sat in the bar after a long day of work to have a drink and listen to whichever piano player or singer was hired for the night. The general attire for the male performers were suits and tuxedos; for the female performers, long dresses and gowns.

Altogether, everyone who came into the bar just looked straight up beautiful. Kendall didn't even think about his own appearance when he was getting dressed a couple minutes ago—maybe he should have put more effort into his outfit and how he looked.

Here he was, in a sweatshirt and some worn out skinny jeans with his arm in a sling. And he wouldn't want to forget the messy wet hair. Not exactly beautiful.

Even on the good days he felt like he was nothing much as far as looks went, really.

"What can I get for you?" he opened his eyes as the waiter interrupted his thoughts and set down a water in front of him. _Well shit_, even the waiters were dressed nicely.

"I'd love a sprite," he gave a curt smile when the waiter looked kind of surprised. Of course, the sophisticated and beautiful people in the bar all ordered those sexy and swanky martinis and cocktails. "I'm underage," Kendall raised an eyebrow. The waiter nodded without a word and an awkward smile, as if he didn't believe anything Kendall was saying.

Kendall picked up the single sided menu and looked over the appetizer choices before thinking, _fuck it. I'm not going for that beach body. _"I'll just try all of the appetizers." Again, the waiter didn't look like he believed his ears as he scribbled down something on his little note pad.

"I'm hungry," Kendall reasoned. The waiter gave a nod and that awkward half-smile again, which kind of annoyed Kendall. As he walked away Kendall couldn't help but notice that he kind of looked like Jett, one of Carlos' friends.

_Shit. Carlos._

He had called Logan earlier, but not Carlos.

Kendall drummed his fingertips on the table. By the sixth ring of the line, Carlos' voicemail answered. Kendall sighed as he waited for the beep.

_Beep_.

"Hey, it's me," Kendall started. "Uh, I was just calling to say—"

"Kendall?" Carlos picked up in the middle of his awkward voicemail.

"Carlos? Hi," he smiled to himself.

"Hi! Sorry, I was just getting out of the shower and I heard my phone—"

"It's fine," Kendall chuckled. "I was just calling to say I'm alive still. Sorta."

"Well that's good," he heard Carlos shuffling around in his room on the end of the line. "Enjoying the celebrity life?"

Kendall rolled his eyes, and mouthed a thank you at the waiter who came back and set down his sprite.

"Yeah, the celeb life," Kendall would have carded a hand through his hair at that moment, but he realized he didn't have the extra hand to do it. "Actually, the funniest thing happened to me today."

"Tell me about it? I'll put you on speakerphone so I don't have to stand around naked," he half-teased, but mostly laughed at himself.

"Well I was walking through Central Park," Kendall pushed away the thoughts of Carlos naked. The last thing he needed was to be horny and lustful right now. "Someone bumped into me and I ended up blacking out and fracturing some things in my arm." He didn't mention the specific name, James Diamond. He knew Carlos wouldn't even pay attention to the rest of the story if he heard that name.

"Jesus, how do you feel?" Carlos was giving the support Kendall didn't necessarily need, but it was nice nonetheless. "Did you get like a cast or something?"

"I got one of those arm sling things. I have to wear it for like three weeks."

Kendall watched groups of people, mostly couples with their friends walking into the lounge for a drink before a night on the town. Of course, all dressed up with somewhere to go.

Kendall remained partially hidden from all the rush of the elegant people coming in, in his nice dark corner.

"That sucks. Kiss your arm for me if you can," Carlos giggled. "I hope you feel better."

Thankfully, Carlos never asked who bumped into Kendall, which was a huge relief.

"Well I should probably go," Carlos told him. "I'm hanging out with Jett and some others in a little."

"Alright," Kendall was a tiny bit disappointed, he wanted to talk to Carlos. Carlos could lighten a mood any day. But Carlos had a life, and Kendall shouldn't be the one to hold him back. He stared blankly at his sprite, realizing he couldn't take a sip until he put down his phone due to his lack of a right arm.

"I'll call you later or something," Carlos said in a loving-kind of way, with a hint of guilt behind his words.

"Bye," Kendall ended the call and put his phone down so he could pull his drink toward him and take a sip. He was alone again, but he didn't really mind. He had a long day, and now he was resting. He closed his eyes again and leaned back to listen to the piano player who was now accompanied by a woman in a long, dark blue dress. He thumped his fingertips against his drink glass to the rhythm of the piano chords, enjoying the beautiful sounds that echoed through the room.

"Your food, sir," he was broken out of his musical trance by the waiter, who was holding several plates at once. "Enjoy."

Kendall had underestimated the amount of food included in an appetizer. At the moment though, he didn't care. He had a feast in front of him. He sat and ate, trying different things from his variety of food.

He must have looked pretty sad and lonely, but he was enjoying the quiet time with himself. He wiped a napkin around his mouth before looking down at his phone, seeing he received a text from Carlos.

**Sorry I couldn't talk much. You can text me if you want to talk :( – C**

He smiled to himself, loving the fact that he had a friend that really cared about him.

He looked up from his phone to see if anyone had noticed him smiling like an idiot, all alone in the dark corner booth of the lounge. No one was looking at him, thankfully. But he did notice a tall guy wearing a pair of skinny jeans like him and a beanie on the top of his head. It was dark, of course, so Kendall couldn't see his face. But he liked that he was no longer the only person underdressed in the bar. He liked this guy…

Until the guy turned.

Of course it was James Diamond.

Just…of course.

For a split second, they made eye contact.

Green eyes to those pretty hazel ones.

Kendall looked down immediately, not sure he wanted James to see him. But of course, when he looked back up to see if James had noticed him, the tall supermodel was already strutting his way over with his hands in his pockets.

Kendall wasn't sure what he was feeling. Was it fear? Nerves? Nausea? Happiness? Probably nerves. There was something about James right now that made his stomach flip.

_Turn around, just turn around. Please. Don't talk to me. I'm a mess. You're so beautiful. I'm a mess. Turn around._

"Hey," James stopped in front of Kendall "What are you doing down here?"

"Just…Hanging," Kendall shrugged, not wanting to make eye contact.

"Well…I just wanted to see how you were—" James stopped short. Kendall looked up to see James standing frozen in shock. His eyes were locked on Kendall's right arm, hanging in that damn sling.

"Did I—" James didn't know what to say; his facial expression had suddenly gone from the look of a confident supermodel to a guilty puppy that had just been reprimanded. "Did I do that?" Kendall watched James' horror-struck face, feeling bad that he had made the pretty boy feel that way.

"Uh, well…it happened when I fell and blacked out I think," he didn't want to be mean to James. Not ever again after he saw that scared and guilty facial expression on James' face. It just didn't belong there. "It's not your fault."

"Kendall," James sat down across from him at the table. Kendall straightened up, sort of uncomfortable with James sitting so close to him. It was straight up butterflies now. "It's so my fault. Oh my god."

Maybe he was feeling the butterflies because he was sitting with a motherfucking supermodel.

"Kendall I'm so sorry," he didn't have words, and Kendall could tell. It just made Kendall feel bad.

"Hey, really, it's okay. I didn't even notice the pain until after I got back into my suite," Kendall tried to make him feel better. He really tried.

So maybe it was sort of James' fault he was in this position. But Kendall made him feel unnecessarily bad from the get-go. And now there was more even more guilt being added on top of those feelings.

"H-how long do you have to…eh…wear that?" James still had his eyes trained on Kendall's arm.

Kendall shifted uncomfortably under James' gaze.

"Only a couple weeks."

"Ugh, I feel like such a dick," James sighed, looking into Kendall's eyes now rather than at his arm.

"Don't," Kendall shocked himself by reaching across the table and resting his left hand reassuringly on James' folded hands. James jumped a little, startled by the contact just as much as Kendall was. Kendall pulled his hand away quickly, his face turning a dark shade of red.

"I'm sorry," Kendall blushed, averting his eyes from James'.

"No," James smiled when Kendall looked back at him. "It's okay."

Kendall's heart pounded against his chest as he studied James' features. Perfectly defined cheekbones, long thick eyelashes lining the beautiful hazel eyes. His complexion was perfect, and _damnit_ he was all around beautiful.

Which meant that Kendall was once again the only guy in the lounge who actually looked like a piece of shit, even if James was wearing basically the same thing.

"You know," James joked. "When you're not yelling at me for knocking you over, you're actually really quite nice."

Kendall chuckled, looking down at the plates in front of him. His heart hadn't slowed down one bit since the electrifying hand contact before.

_Oh no, Kendall. You cannot fall for him._

"Well…I'll leave you alone," James said slowly, obviously hesitant. Kendall sat in silence for a couple seconds too long, not exactly sure what was going on with his heart, or in his mind. James slid out of the booth and stood up. "I'll see you around?"

Kendall looked up at James, _handsome _James, and smiled. He then nodded, not sure what to say. James turned and started to walk away.

_Fuck it. Just...Fuck it._

"James wait!"

The words flew out of his mouth way too quickly to stop them. There was no taking it back now. James stopped and turned in his tracks, his expression looked hopeful. Kendall blushed at that.

"Stay," he grinned, motioning to the empty seat across from him.

James' hopeful face started to shine with that supermodel-esque elegance and happiness once more.

"Are you sure?" James asked, unconvinced Kendall genuinely wanted him there.

Kendall was certain this time, there was no doubt about him wanting James' company.

"Stay with me. I want you to."

* * *

***Climbs under a rock***

**Well? What'd ya think?**

**Xx**

**Sarah :)**


	7. Buddies

**Hi all :)**

**Thank you for flooding me with reviews and support! It means a lot. Thank you to: LoveSparkle, SincerelyYourSecret, ialmostdo, annabellex2, child who is cool, amrice101, KEALY KAMES, bmwstamps, ilovecarlospena93, DramaJen89, 4ever with Kames, Kamesloveallday and DeniseDEMD.**

**Chapter 7:**

* * *

When Kendall finally accepted the fact that James caused his heart to beat a little faster, his stomach to churn a little harder, and his head to feel lighter, he started to relax.

He figured all of the feelings were caused by the fact that James was famous.

_World_ famous.

Not to mention a supermodel—naturally gorgeous.

And he was talking to this world famous gorgeous human being—who was willingly talking back to _him_.

So he ignored the feelings and talked to James in that little booth of the Knight Hotel lounge.

"So tell me Kendall," James started picking through the food Kendall had ordered in surplus—not expecting to have so much of it. "Knight Hotel, huh?"

Kendall frowned, not exactly sure what James wanted to know.

"Your family owns this place or—"

"Oh," Kendall nodded. "My dad."

"Wow. I used to stay here a lot, before…" James stopped himself short. He bit down on his bottom lip, looking as though he didn't know whether or not to continue. Kendall knew what he was going to say, James was thinking about Dak.

Kendall pretty much knew the story—James and Dak were dating and split up recently because Dak had been cheating.

"Hey, it's fine. We don't have to talk about him—er, that," Kendall waved his free hand to get rid of the awkward silence.

James for a second seemed relieved, but his facial expression then turned into a determined look.

"No, it's fine," James nodded. "Dak Zevon's a pig, it's time people ought to know."

Kendall looked at his arm; unsure whether he should be happy? Worried? Scared of what James might say?

"Dak and I _dated_," he made sure to put air quotes around the word 'dated', "for almost a year and a half."

"_Dated_," Kendall raised an eyebrow.

"He didn't really love me," James shrugged. "I started to see it after it was too late—he had already been involved with that shithead Beau behind my back at that point."

Kendall nodded, all too familiar with that Beau character. He was really feeling sorry for James at that point, he didn't know supermodels had a darker side.

"He didn't know I knew it," James looked down at the table covered in now-empty plates. "And for whatever reason we continued to live together, I acted like I didn't know or care."

"Why?"

"To be honest I have no clue," James sighed. "It's stupid that I wasted so much of my time with him. So now I'm back here until I can find a place I want to buy. The company I work for has a headquarters here so I can go to school in the fall."

"Well good for you," Kendall offered a sympathetic smile. "You're finally free," he leaned forward and took a sip of his sprite. He couldn't help but wonder where _James_ had been accepted to in the city.

Kendall had been accepted into both NYU and Columbia, both in the city. And well, to put it lightly, they were both schools that _smart_ people went to. Not _supermodels_.

"It's about time I'm single again," James grinned, all confidence and cockiness returning to that pretty little head of his. "Maybe I'll find a girl or two, that way Dak can see just how free I really am."

Kendall swallowed. Girls?

"You're not gay?" he asked, being blunt.

"I'm bi," James shrugged. "You can't keep all this sexiness reserved for only one gender," James winked, joking.

Kendall snorted with a roll of his eyes.

"And I'm sure you have a special someone…" James took a sip of his coke, eyes focused on Kendall.

Kendall thought about it for a second. Would Logan and Carlos count? Probably not.

"Well…not really," he rubbed the back of his neck. At that moment, as if the gods wanted to ruin his evening even more for just _that_ moment, his phone vibrated against the table with a text from Logan.

Kendall turned the screen off and gave his attention back to James, who was staring at the blonde's phone.

"Who's that?" James grinned mischievously.

"Just a friend—Wait!"

James was too fast for Kendall's crippled arm, he had gotten the phone quickly without Kendall having the chance to stop him.

"_Logan_," James read the name aloud. "Logan says, call me when you get the chance, I miss you," James raised an eyebrow. "Is _she_ pretty?"

Kendall couldn't help but roll his eyes once more. Was James really that thick?

"Logan is a dude, James," he reached over and snatched the phone from James' hand. James only smiled at the response.

"I knew it," he sat there with that perfect, content smile. "You like dudes too."

"And how did you just 'know it'?" Kendall put his phone in his lap to avoid James stealing it again.

"You totally think I'm cute," James purred.

So he was right—but that didn't mean Kendall would admit it.

"You're a supermodel, James. _Everyone_ thinks you're cute," Kendall said blatantly.

"Everyone," James leaned forward on top of the table. "Including you," he playfully pointed a finger at Kendall.

Kendall shrugged.

"You're okay, I guess," he teased. He pulled his drink's straw up to his lips and sucked, eyes not leaving James'.

James' face went from proud to confused in less than a second.

"Okay? You don't just become a _supermodel_ for looking _okay_."

"Maybe you do, maybe you don't," Kendall shrugged again, smirking. Making James sweat over his personal looks was just _too_ fun for him.

Kendall excused himself from the conversation to answer Logan's text with an _"I'll call you in a few."_

It was almost nine, which meant Kendall had spent nearly two hours with James. When Kendall looked back up at his company, he was fidgeting with his hair, Kendall's comment was _clearly_ still bothering him.

He was starting to get a little tired, which was lame considering the early time.

"What are you up to tonight?" Kendall asked nonchalantly adjusted the length of his arm sling, letting some pressure off of his shoulder.

"Not much," James shrugged. "Just hanging out with you."

Kendall smiled before waving his hand at the waiter to catch his attention.

"Really?" Kendall asked. The waiter came over, giving Kendall the chance to ask for the check.

"I'll take care of it," James held up a hand to Kendall's face and smiled at the waiter. "Put it all on room 1132."

"No," Kendall grew annoyed quickly. "Room 1131, thank you."

The waiter looked at the both of them, confused. Kendall shot a stern look at the waiter, before he nodded. "Of course, Mr. Knight."

"Kendall," James whined as soon as the waiter was out of earshot. "I feel bad. Let me repay you. I owe you something."

Kendall frowned.

"I'm fine. Seriously, I've never really held a grudge, and I'm not going to start now. Especially not against _you_."

James was shocked at this comment. "Not against _me_?"

Kendall shook his head before sliding out of the booth. "Nope."

"Just because I'm _me,_ as fabulous as I might be, doesn't mean I should get the star treatment on this one," James followed closely behind Kendall.

Kendall knew James couldn't see his face as he lead the way, so he looked down at his shoes with a grin.

"Kendall, stop," James grabbed Kendall's arm in the middle of the bustling lobby. People moved around the two as they stood, facing each other. "I don't think you get it. I am really, _really_, sorry."

Kendall rolled his eyes. He didn't think James got it. Kendall really, _really_ wasn't mad.

"You want to know how to fix this?" Kendall tried to cross his arms, but frowned upon realizing he couldn't do it with one arm.

"Yes," James whined.

"Stop apologizing," Kendall winked, and started his walk towards the elevator.

"Hey!" James shouted after him, after realizing he had been duped. "That's not fair!"

Kendall had no choice but to wait for James to catch up as he waited for the elevator to get to the first floor.

"You can't say that! This just doesn't feel right!"

Kendall did everything he could to ignore James' constant protesting and whining.

Well, not _ignore_…but…not respond.

The elevator doors opened. Kendall walked in without a word, with James on his tail again, still bitching.

"James. Stop," Kendall had finally had enough by the time they had reached the seventh floor. "What can _I _do to make _you _feel better about this?" he motioned to his sad little arm in the sling.

James shut up for a glorious second and let Kendall's question sink in. He took a moment to ponder, before he started to grin.

Kendall got nervous.

That grin on James' perfect face meant _trouble_.

"What…" Kendall raised an eyebrow.

"Nothing," James shrugged. "I just thought of something funny."

"I'm not doing anything _funny_ for you," Kendall shook his head, letting James get out of the elevator first when they reached their floor.

James walked ahead of him, confusing Kendall.

"What's your hurry?" he joked. James slowed his pace and waited for the blonde, with that same damn grin on his face. "What were you thinking of that you're being so damn weird about?" Kendall was super confused, to say the least.

"It's a secret."

"I don't like secrets," Kendall stopped when he reached his room door.

"Well, let's hang out again sometime. Then I'll tell you my secret," James stood next to Kendall as he jammed the key into the door. He felt an intense amount of pressure with James so close, watching him unlock the door. He finally got it open and pushed it forward, taking a step inside.

"Okay?" James asked as the blonde thought about the request.

Kendall looked back at James. His pretty hazel eyes were glowing with an airy confidence, a little bit of guilt and something else that Kendall couldn't quite put his finger on. He studied James' face.

Was the brunette only talking to Kendall because he felt bad about hurting him?

_Those perfect eyes._

As soon as he made it up to Kendall would it be over?

His stomach churned at these thoughts, and not in the way it had been for the past two hours.

_But those eyes._

Looking into those beautiful hazel eyes, Kendall had realized that no matter what—he would end up liking James. Maybe not even more than a friend, but he was in no position to turn down someone like this.

"Okay," Kendall smiled.

"I don't usually do this with people I don't know but…" James pulled out his cellphone from his back pocket. "Give me your number and I'll text you when I can hang out."

"You want _my_ number?" Kendall chuckled.

"Uh, yeah?" James shrugged.

"It's a secret," Kendall shrugged right back.

"But I don't like secrets," James pouted, dropping the hand with his phone in it.

"Well," Kendall raised an eyebrow. "When you tell me your secret, I'll tell you mine. Goodnight James," he gave a smile, starting to wonder if James found Kendall even remotely attractive.

James gave up, finally, but smiled back and started to walk towards his room at the end of the hall.

_Maybe he likes a challenge_, Kendall thought to himself while closing the door. He didn't bother talking to his father as he stripped down in his bedroom and got ready for bed, thinking about what James' secret could possibly be. He didn't bother putting a shirt on with the state of his arm, sliding into bed in a pair of boxers.

He glanced over at the alarm clock by the bed—only nine-fifteen.

He lay awake for hours, smiling to himself as he replayed the conversations he and James had in his head. He eventually started to get tired, and somewhere around midnight he had tired himself out with wondering about James' secret thought.

Kendall felt kind of crazy; knowing that falling for James would be silly. James was a supermodel, damn it. And Kendall was just Kendall.

James would never even consider him.

Kendall continued to wonder as he edged closer to sleep, wonder if he was good enough for the other boy.

Little did Kendall know, a certain brunette was laying in his own bed wide-awake down the hallway, wondering if _he_ was good enough for his new blonde friend.

* * *

**Look I'm losing all writing abilities don't hate me please.**

**I need a super awesome comeback chapter.**

**Tell me if you like it though and I'll give you a hug :)**

**Xx**

**Sarah**


	8. Taking the City

**Don't give me that look. I know. "But Sarah you promised at least once a week—" Yeah. I know. I also know it's been a month and then some.**

**Alright guys. I'm really awful lately about updating this story. And I suck for it. So here we go, another attempt at a promise.**

**If not a weekly update, then at least once every two weeks. I ACTUALLY PROMISE.**

**So now on to the fun part! Thank you for the reviews, they fill me with happiness **** : LoveSparkle, KEALY KAMES, ialmostdo, XxxAnimaniacxxX, camperkid18, CrazyMary01, SincerelyYourSecret, CamayaKames, 4ever with Kames, MyLeZiSpErFeCt, BTR, annabellex2, child who is cool, and NekoBerryXo.**

**Chapter 8:**

* * *

Kendall opened his eyes to a creamy-white ceiling, slowly letting his surroundings fill in as he remembered where he was. Moving around the country so often had him confused when he woke up most mornings, not in the same bed as he did only a week ago. He tensed his legs and his stomach up, smiling at the feeling of release after stretching his body out. He rolled his ankles and wiggled his toes under the sheets, listening to the satisfying cracking noises as he worked out the kinks and tight spots.

He then lifted his arms up—_Shit. That didn't feel good_. Kendall groaned at the electric shock of pain running through his right arm. He was gentle in pulling it back down before glancing over at the bedside table, where the sling he was supposed to wear for the next couple of weeks sat.

Waking up to his throbbing arm had him wondering—how did he get there?

Oh right, James.

_James. _

Kendall's heart, suddenly deciding to feel heavier, started pumping. Not too hard, but enough for Kendall to know that he was in a bad situation.

A bad situation, as in a: _James is really good looking and nice but this crush needs to go away because he's famous and kind of arrogant and he would never go for someone like me so please heart stop._ That kind of situation.

He stepped out of the suite that morning with his coat hanging over his left arm and his phone in his hand. His wallet was shoved uncomfortably in his tight back pocket—skinny jeans weren't exactly the best choice when you needed pants with pockets that could hold a lot. Thankfully, 'a lot' wasn't a lot when it came to Kendall. He was a pretty simple guy.

He ate breakfast in the lounge uninterrupted and in silence; although he did turn his head every time he noticed someone walking into the room out of the corner of his eye. Kendall was half-expecting his father to walk in any minute, ready to stop him from leaving the hotel with his arm in bad shape. The other half of him was expecting to see James walk in; _hoping_ to see James walk in.

His phone vibrated in his lap—the _third_ text from Carlos checking to see if Kendall was mad at him this morning.

Kendall chuckled as he sent a text back explaining he wasn't mad; he had just forgotten to text him back last night after Logan tried calling—_oh shit. Logan tried calling. _

Kendall didn't even wait to make sure his text to Carlos was successfully sent; he only focused on finding Logan's contact and clicking his name.

It took a couple of rings—it was early yet. His foot was rapidly tapping against the carpeted floor out of nerves. Logan answered on the sixth ring, just as Kendall was about to give up and try later.

"H-hello?" Logan cleared his raspy voice.

"Logan! Hi! I'm so sorry I was busy last night and I completely forgot you—"

"Kendall? It's like six-thirty." Kendall heard a yawn coming from the other end of the line.

"It's nine-thirty—oh," Kendall realized halfway through his statement that the west coast was three hours behind the east. "Shit," he mumbled, "Sorry beautiful."

He heard Logan giggle; he could almost feel the heat radiating from Logan's most-likely pink cheeks.

"Oh shut up," Logan stifled another giggle. "You don't mean that."

Kendall was forgiven.

It's not like Kendall said it to be forgiven, he said it to say it. Logan was beautiful, and one of the nicest guys he'd ever met. While Kendall listened to Logan's soothing yet energetic voice coming all the way from Seattle, he sat at his little table in the hotel lounge—in New York City. He felt a little 'homesick,' you could call it. It felt as though Logan was the best friend he'd had forever that he was so unfairly separated from a couple months ago. He missed Logan, which also got him thinking about Carlos.

Oh, how Kendall missed his boys.

He looked up when another person entered the lounge, but still not the tall brunette model he was keeping an eye out for.

"I'll let you get back to bed," Kendall chuckled after a short silence—he had probably annoyed Logan by waking him up. "I know you like to sleep in." There were a couple of times that Kendall had accidentally woken up Logan after spending the night, much to Logan's dismay. Kendall had to endure the 'grumpy' Logan for a couple hours until he was fully awake.

"It was nice to talk to you though," Logan answered, yawning once more. "Thanks for calling back."

"I'm so sorry, Logan," Kendall scrubbed his face with his hand out of embarrassment for forgetting about his friend last night. So embarrassed that he didn't even notice the shadow appear abruptly over the remainders of the eggs and pancakes on his plate on the table in front of him.

"It's fine," Logan sleepily chuckled. "Kendall I need to go back to bed," he whined.

Kendall slowly looked up after noticing that someone was standing at his table, curiously watching him face-palm himself out of pure shame. As he continued to focus on Logan's voice over the phone, he looked at the person's belt first and then slowly dragged his eyes up the built flannel-clad torso.

"I'll talk to you later Logie," Kendall grinned as he added the name for the teasing effect; Logan had made it clear he didn't like the petname.

Kendall's eyes landed themselves on_ James's_ smiling face as he hung up the phone, disconnecting himself from Logan. He must have looked pretty funny to James. Or stupid.

"Logie?" was the first thing James said to Kendall that morning.

Kendall felt a blush gracing his cheeks, but thankfully it wasn't too severe. He looked down at his nearly empty plate with a sudden surge of energy and happiness with James standing right next to him.

Oh yeah, there was no way he would get out of liking James alive.

"Good morning, James," he didn't quite make full eye contact with James out of the fear of blushing _again_.

"Morning Kendall, you look especially cute today," James took a seat across at the table without a single word.

"So what are you doing today?" Kendall reached forward for his Orange Juice to take a sip before he finally allowing himself to make eye contact with James.

"Oh I don't know," he shrugged with a smirk. "Whatever _you're_ doing today."

Kendall ignored the statement with a roll of his eyes. He looked out the window next to the table and up to what he could see of the sky in between the tightly packed buildings. It was sort of gloomy outside; there was a thick layer of gray clouds floating above the city.

"It looks like it might snow," he dropped his eyes back into the center of Times Square, which was eerily quiet considering the time it was. Only three days after New Years, but there was only a handful of people out there-meaning it must have been extremely cold out there. So maybe it was a stay-in day. "It must be freezing out…"

"Let's go out anyways!" James grinned. Kendall finally let out a chuckle at his new 'friend's eagerness. James stopped his nonsense and gave a real, genuine smile.

"There you go, cheer up! I'm not _that_ annoying, am I?" James asked, only half-joking.

"No," Kendall smiled back. "You're not." James' persistence caused some second thoughts about his worries from last night—maybe James really did want to hang out with him. Maybe it wasn't just because he felt bad about hurting him.

"What are you thinking about?" James interrupted his thoughts. Kendall studied his calm face.

"I'm thinking that I guess I have time for you today," he gave in with a joke and pushed his seat back to stand up. Now James would be able to get 'repaying Kendall' out of his head, and everything could be normal for once. That, or James would leave Kendall alone after today and would forget about the blonde. Kendall shuddered and pushed away the sad thoughts, ready to spend the day with _James. _As in, _James Diamond_. He needed to get his head out of his ass and really enjoy it.

"I have to go get my coat, and then we can figure out what we want to do," James waited as Kendall signed the check for his breakfast.

"Okay," Kendall nodded, making sure he had everything before following James out of the lounge. "I'll wait here," he sat down in one of the leather armchairs next to one of the two marble fireplaces in the lobby. James nodded and left the blonde behind as he walked towards the elevator.

Kendall realized he would have to call Carlos later; if there were three things the Latino loved, it was celebrities, gossip, and celebrity gossip. He qualified spending the day with James as all three.

He watched people coming in and out of the lobby; some checked in while others checked out and dragged their suitcases out with them. After seeing a man stop right before the doors to put on his coat, Kendall remembered he had to somehow get his coat on and the sling on over it before James returned, just to avoid the embarrassment of having to do it _in front_ of James.

As quickly as he could, he got the sling off (with ample amounts of pain involved), and tried his hardest not to tear up as he shoved his bad arm down one of the coat sleeves and struggled to get the other one on. He ducked his head forward to get sling around his neck. Thankfully he had slid his arm into place right before James had returned, ready to go.

"Here," he held out a scarf with a blank expression. Kendall looked at it, unsure of what James wanted him to do with it. "Well put it on," the brunette rolled his eyes, tossing it on to Kendall's lap.

"I don't need it—"

"Kendall, trust me. I've been here for a year and a half. You need it," James shook his head, waiting for Kendall to get over himself and put it on. Kendall eventually stood up and hung it around his neck. James waited a full minute before jumping in and helping out. He tied it nicely around Kendall's neck before tucking it into his peacoat—much like what his mother used to do. That's why Kendall felt it was appropriate to say, "Thanks mom," with a toothy grin.

"You're welcome darling."

There was something about the way James said 'darling' that made Kendall's stomach twist. If that statement were out of context—it would have sounded like James _loved_ Kendall, as if they were together in some way or form. Kendall swallowed the lump in his throat before speaking.

"So where are we going—"

"We need to figure out how to get out first," James led them over to the revolving doors.

"Oh," Kendall was confused. "We just go through the doors…" he mumbled sarcastically.

"No dummy, would you like to spend the first five minutes of your day with me with the paparazzi trailing us?" James turned to Kendall with a raised eyebrow and a questioning look.

"No…"

"Good, me neither," James shook his head. "I'll go first. Just walk all the way down to 48th street, and go into the frozen yogurt store on the corner. Meet ya there," James winked before pushing through the revolving doors and disappearing. With that wink came the familiar feeling of Kendall's stomach twisting, or even _better—_getting punched right in the gut. He felt his face heating up thinking about the whole 'darling' thing. What if he and James ended up together—what if he'd be hearing that again soon?

No matter how hard Kendall tried, he couldn't stop part of himself from _hoping_ he'd hear it again soon.

He waited a couple minutes and checked his texts from Carlos before leaving. Feeling the frigid air burn his face once he was out in the square. Once he got to the frozen yogurt store, he found James standing right outside the doors, rubbing his hands together to stay warm.

"I was starting to think you were going to ditch me, you weren't coming," James smiled when he saw Kendall trudging towards him.

"I wouldn't do that," Kendall smiled back. "You don't trust me?"

James blushed—a real blush.

The side of Kendall that was crushing on James felt victorious—maybe James was feeling something back towards Kendall.

_Kendall don't be ridiculous._

"It's fucking cold," Kendall pushed his thoughts away again as they started their journey.

James only snorted while they walked down the sidewalk together. "That's why I got you a scarf, dumbass," leaving his blush from only a minute ago behind.

It was going to be a long day.

* * *

Kendall had let James take him everywhere he could think of. Which was a hell of a lot more places than Kendall could think to see the day before. It was also a hell of a lot more fun.

"We're going to start with the Met," James had announced after waving down a taxicab about a block away from the fro-yo place they had started at. "Just cause I like it there."

"You like art?" Kendall was shocked, and his skeptical facial expression showed it.

"Yes, Kendall. I'm not that dense. People like _me_ can appreciate things people like _you_ do," he defended himself as he held the taxi door open for Kendall. "I've been there millions of times."

"Sorry," Kendall only laughed. "I'm not friends with a lot of _people like you_."

"Well now that we're friends, now you know."

Kendall only smiled for the duration of the cab ride, listening and nodding while James pointed things out. He couldn't get over the fact that he and James were at least friends, and that was a good start.

They spent almost two hours in the museum, admiring all of the paintings, pieces and sculptures in the large building. It was too cold to look at some of the sculptures that were in the outdoors exhibits, so they moved on to their next stop. James got them another taxi where they went next to the Museum of Natural History, where James gave Kendall his _own_ information session after they decided to ditch their boring tour group.

"Please, I've memorized that script," was James' justification of leaving the tour behind.

"Here we have our great ancestors, the cavemen," James waved a hand to a group of the wax figures meant to look like cavemen once they got into the pre-historic room. "If you look closely you'll notice they haven't tried the new Kuda Gel and Mousse Combo that I did a photo shoot for last month," he pointed out the wax figure's crazy and unkempt hair.

If it wasn't enough that Kendall was actually enjoying James' weird jokes all day, James was also one hundred percent serious when he made most of them—which only made them laugh harder in the end.

"And this one here," James led them over to the wax-caveman closest to the exit, "Is Dak Zevon's long lost twin."

Kendall knew James was trying to make a point out of spite—which was shown by the fact that he chose the ugliest and most awkward of the cavemen to choose to resemble Dak.

With a solemn stare, James looked at the Dak look-alike for a minute or two.

"He took me to this museum right before I found out about his cheating," James finally said and looked down at the ground. Kendall decided it was appropriate to put a hand on James' shoulder, attempting to comfort him.

"Hey, it's okay. We're hanging out today, not thinking about douche bags," Kendall gave a smile, hoping to cheer up his friend.

"You're right, I'm having fun." James gave a weak laugh. "Are you?"

"I am," Kendall answered honestly. He _really was_ having a great time, as much as he would say he disliked James only three days ago.

"It's kind of weird, Kendall."

"What is?"

"How much I trust you already. We've only known each other for, like, a day. I'm just strangely comfortable around you."

Kendall felt his face heating up—rightfully so this time around. Little did James know, Kendall felt the same way_ and then some_.

"You know, we could leave if you don't want to stay here, I'm sure you have plenty more planned for us to do," Kendall swallowed his emotions and decided to keep everything simple for the time being.

To that, James only smiled and shook his head.

"You think I want us to miss out on the Easter Island statues?"

They both laughed as they left 'Cave-Dak' and the rest of the cavemen behind. They walked down the hallway to explore the rest of the museum and start the rest of their day's journey.

After they left the Museum of Natural History, they made a couple more stops at simple places like the Empire State Building (where they took a 'selfie' together on James' phone), a random hot-dog and pretzel stand in the freezing cold air, the West Village and Rockefeller center, where they watched ice skaters underneath the world-famous Christmas tree. If it weren't for Kendall's injured arm, they probably would have been one of the many down there in the rink.

It was already five-thirty by the time they had come out of their bubble and noticed the sky had started to get darker, and that days weren't meant to last forever. They'd been out in the below freezing weather all day—meaning they'd both probably have colds for the rest of their lives. But that wasn't going to stop James from thinking of just one more spot to introduce Kendall to the city with.

"Do you think you can get through one more stop?" James had asked after they turned the corner out of Rockefeller Center.

There was something in James' face that looked extra hopeful to Kendall—he couldn't say no, no matter how cold he was.

"I'm down."

* * *

Kendall found himself following James through Central Park for almost half an hour before it was announced that he had to cover his eyes for the remainder of their walking, so the final destination could be a surprise.

James placed on hand on Kendall's back to lead him and one hand over his eyes, so that their dark surroundings were now pitch black to Kendall. His heartbeat went a lot faster with all of the contact—James had such a contagious energy to him that was sure to be the death of Kendall.

It was only two minutes into Kendall's 'blind walk' that he started to feel wet, frozen flakes hitting his cheekbones and landing on the top of his head.

"Is it snowing?" Kendall asked.

"Yep," James continued to push Kendall in one direction. "Wait til you see it."

"Well you could just let me look now—"

The snowflakes stopped hitting his face shortly before James brought them to a halt.

"Here," James announced. He lifted the hand off of Kendall's eyes, letting the blonde see again. First, Kendall looked around and above him to notice they were in a boathouse—closed down for the winter. The boathouse provided a roof to cover the two boys from the now heavily-falling snow. Kendall then looked away from his surroundings to notice a pond right in front of them surrounded by what looked like a forest. Of course, their location was given away by the buildings lining the perimeter of the park—but when Kendall squinted his eyes, the lights from all of the apartments and skyscrapers just looked like a bunch of stars.

James had left Kendall behind in the boathouse to go stand on the frozen banks of the water, before bending down to tap the ice.

Kendall watched James—more like admired him.

In that moment, every cocky, silly, annoying or obnoxious thing James had ever done or said in the past forty-eight hours had vanished from Kendall's mind. With the city lights around the park creating enough of a glow to illuminate James' face slightly as well as the snowflakes falling around him, it took a lot for Kendall to avoid running up to James and kissing him right then and there. The tall brunette looked like an angel, to put it simply. Kendall firmly planted his feet in the ground to avoid any incidents and watched in awe for the next few minutes. He had realized even the throbbing pain in his arm all day had gone away—being around James had numbed it all out.

_God. This is way more serious than a crush._

Kendall was so stuck in his thoughts that he didn't notice James walking back until the taller boy was standing right in front of him, with a soft smile playing at his lips.

"What are you thinking about?" he asked, looking down at Kendall in the darkness of the boathouse.

"How perfect you are," Kendall didn't even realize what he had just said aloud, until James gave a short chuckle.

"I'm not perfect," he sighed. "I wish I was. But I'm not." He was no longer smiling, but looking at Kendall with a regretful expression. "Kendall I'm so sorry about your arm."

"I told you it's fine. You need to stop apologizing and if spending your day with me was your way of getting me to forgive you—"

"No, I actually wanted to spend the day with you."

"Then why do you still feel so bad? What did I tell you last night? I'm not mad," Kendall _was_ starting to grow a little annoyed, but only because James was being dumb.

"I don't know," the supermodel shook his head and looked down at his feet. Kendall looked down as well; noticing the space in between their bodies was getting smaller. All that stood between them right now was his _stupid_ arm in the _stupid_ sling.

"Remember last night, when I asked what I could do to make you feel better?" Kendall spoke suddenly, remembering how similarly James was feeling last night as he was now.

"Yeah," James shrugged. "It was a secret, I told you."

"I'll tell you my secret, if you tell me yours. It's about time, don't you think?" Kendall chuckled. James grinned and pulled his phone out of his coat pocket. He handed it to Kendall, who then put his number into his friend's phone, revealing _his_ 'secret.'

"Thank you," James smiled.

"Now James," Kendall was back to a serious note. "What can I do to make you forget about hurting my—"

_Woah. Wait. What's happening? _Kendall wasn't able to finish his sentence because James cut him off with a kiss.

_James fucking Diamond _was standing there. Kissing him.

Kendall stood still like a deer in headlights before he adjusted. He finally relaxed and was able to kiss James back—what he'd been waiting to do all night. They stayed like that for a good two minutes—standing in the boathouse in the middle of a mini-snowstorm (nothing like Minnesota, but hey, it was snowing) with their lips pressed together, creating something so much more than just a friendship, or at least Kendall hoped.

They eventually pulled apart and grinned at each other.

"That's my secret," James laughed. "Been waiting to do that all day."

"Are you sure?" Kendall was so confused. _Why the fuck would James want that?_

"I told you earlier, it's weird how much I trust you already," James reasoned. Kendall nodded, understanding where _that_ part came from. "And I know you don't think I'm the smartest, but I have a good feeling about this. And you."

Kendall was truly honored.

"Now, I would kiss you again," James laughed, "But we need to head back to the hotel now because I'm both freezing and starving, agreed?"

"Agreed," Kendall laughed.

They slowly left behind the boathouse and the pond where they shared their first kiss together. They held hands during their walk and made their way through the snow towards the edge of the park to pull over another taxi to get them back to the Knight Hotel.

Kendall smiled to himself as James hummed a tune while they walked—feeling the snow land in their hair, eyelashes and cheeks.

That's when Kendall knew someone up above in a greater world was rooting for him—something great seemed to be happening to him and he didn't know_ why _or_ what_ he did to deserve it.

All he knew was, he was pretty damn lucky.

* * *

**I hope you guys liked it.**

**Again, New updates coming faster.**

**I promise.**

**Drop me a note if you liked it!**

**xx**

**Sarah**


	9. A Bump in the Road

**I honestly just have no words for myself…..I'm so lame with updates. I completely understand if you've given up on me at this point.**

**I also don't know if I'm going to continue this story! I know I've always only worked at one story at a time…but I'm already coming up with new ideas and I'm just not feeling this one… I'm at a difficult point with it.**

**But this chapter has a bit of inappropriate language…as usual. I apologize.**

* * *

**Chapter 9:**

Tossing and turning.

Obviously, that's something a two-year old would do in the midst of a nightmare, in the deepest and darkest hours of the night. It wouldn't be until the child woke up that he realized he was in his bed, safe and sound. Away from all the monsters and zombies chasing after him in his head.

However, tossing and turning is also what a teenager falling in love would do.

Kendall spent the entire night rolling around out of pure giddiness. Not because he was uncomfortable or scared of the dark, but restless with passion. He was excited. Excited for what would come of him and James—which was funny because not only a day ago he had _despised_ James.

He was also confused.

Did James only kiss him to makeup for the broken arm? It couldn't have been that way—the kiss was James' 'secret'. James had been waiting to do it for a full day! He said so himself!

Kendall smiled to himself in the dark. It was already three-thirty in the morning—what sense was there in trying to fall asleep now? He rolled over in the massive bed so that he was facing the windows covered in blackout curtains—shutting out the light of Times Square. At the foot of the curtains, a bit of that light lined the carpeted floor.

Kendall followed the line of light with his eyes—way too distracted to close the world out from his head.

He rolled over again and ended up turning on the television, without the success of closing his eyes for even a half a minute.

He was jumpy and restless, feeling thousands of emotions he hadn't felt in years, sad to say.

Yes, for the short time he knew them, he had been happy and excited with Logan and Carlos. But he hadn't lost a lot of sleep over them.

The only thing he lost sleep over when he was with them was over how he was going to break the news to them that he was going to leave them behind.

At some point though, the news of the world _finally_ had Kendall falling into a comfortable, deep sleep, filled with dreams of a certain supermodel.

* * *

When Kendall woke up a few short hours later, he was in a daze. He had wondered if he'd really slept at all—it felt as if his eyes had closed for a second and it was daylight again.

He was strangely awake though—considering he was anxious to get his day started. He was anxious to see James and hopefully gain some insight on where they were at relationship-wise.

"Kendall," Kendall noticed his father's head poke into the doorway, peering into the room. "I've got a meeting with the staff this morning, do you think you could get up and going soon?"

Kendall merely nodded, in a sleepy and fragile state.

"Why is your TV on?" Jon noticed the extra noise in the room coming from the TV.

"I fell asleep last night in the middle of a show," Kendall stretched and grinned at the same time. It wasn't a complete lie, except for the fact that he was only watching the TV to create some comfortable noise in the room at the extremely early hours of the morning.

"Ah, well, I'll see you later," Jon shook his head before closing the door behind him.

Kendall rubbed the sleep out of his eyes and focused on the ceiling above him, with its intricate yet subtle paint designs, ignoring the now-familiar 'E-News' theme song ringing out on the television.

"And on E-News this morning we have a special story on the Dak Zevon and James Diamond split—"

Kendall jerked his head up at the two names the anchorwoman mentioned.

"Last night James Diamond was spotted handing a key to his ex-boyfriend, Dak Zevon, here is the picture a paparazzi snapped on the spot—"

_Wait. What?_

Kendall's stomach did flips and flops before dropping completely as he looked at the picture. Sure enough, James was handing a key over to Dak in the picture. There was no way it _wasn't_ James.

"Sources confirm that James was handing the extra key to his room at the Knight Hotel in Times Square over to Zevon. Do I smell a make-up brewing?" the obnoxious woman reporting the story smiled and winked at the camera.

Kendall was boiling.

Absolutely _boiling_ with rage.

He took a pillow and threw it as hard as he could at the television, before screaming out of pain.

"Fuck!"

He hadn't realized he had used his bad arm to throw the pillow; he was so distracted by his anger. He sat in bed, hugging his arms as his vision blurred with tears. The tears, caused half by the pain in his arm and half by James leading him on, stopped welling up after he got a heavy breathing pattern going, allowing oxygen to flow to his brain.

He got up and started changing, careful not to upset his arm any more than he already had.

He picked up James' scarf from the armchair in the corner of the room and looked at it. He ignored his rumbling stomach that was begging for food, as he tried to remember how exactly he could forget to return the scarf last night. There was just too much going through his head. Pure disappointment.

Sure, he was disappointed. And yeah, he thought that maybe there was a chance he would fall _in love _with James.

But he was _not_ going to let the two days he spent _liking—_fuck falling in love—James bring him down.

* * *

Kendall stared at the door in front of him, nearly ripping the scarf in his hands to shreds.

He took a deep breath with a frown on his face, and started knocking on the door angrily.

"Hold on," he heard a voice behind the door, followed by some footsteps.

Before the door was fully open, Kendall allowed himself to throw the scarf at James and storm away from James' suite to the elevators.

"Kendall! Wait!"

Kendall was furiously stabbing his finger at the down button—hoping to make an escape to the city streets as quickly as possible.

He took two steps into the elevator before a hand was pulling his arm back.

"Owww," Kendall whined, wriggling his arm sling out of James' grip.

"Shit, I'm sorry," James laughed. "What's wrong with you today?" he joked.

But Kendall wasn't joking.

"There's nothing wrong with me," Kendall fumed, jabbing the elevator button to keep it open. "There's something wrong with _you_."

James laughed at this, obviously not catching on. He motioned to his bare feet and pajama pants.

"Sorry I couldn't pull myself together in the two seconds you gave me to open the door," he kept laughing at both Kendall and himself.

"This isn't a joke!" Kendall snapped. "You're treating this like a joke! It's not a fucking joke!"

James' smile fell, and he finally looked at Kendall sincerely.

"Kendall what's—"

"I thought we were both being honest last night," Kendall stepped into the elevator and pressed the 'open doors' button to give himself time to speak. "You said you wanted to move on from Dak."

"I do—" James' mouth was left open as Kendall gave him the hand—motioning for him to stop talking.

"Then how come I woke up to a story about you meeting up with him last night and giving him a key to your room?"

James' mouth shut quickly. "That's what this is about?"

"I can't believe I let myself start falling for you—" Kendall could feel a lump in his throat forming, so he released the 'open doors' button. "I hope you and Dak worked things out last night."

The last thing Kendall saw before the doors closed was James standing still, wordless.

Kendall let out a breath accompanied by a whimper.

_Served James right._

* * *

Kendall had sat by the duck pond in Central Park for three hours, ignoring the texts and phone calls James had tried to reach him with.

There were points where he forgot why he was sitting on the bench, sulking in the ice-cold weather; he often picked up his phone and looked at the screen when it lit up with a text message, or rang with a call.

"God damnit James," Kendall would have thrown his phone in the pond in front of him, if only he hadn't needed it to keep in touch with Carlos, Logan and his family members. What a shame that was.

His phone rang one more time, cut off after two rings; meaning someone was leaving him a voicemail.

_I wonder who_ _would do that right now,_ Kendall thought to himself as he watched some hockey players step on to the pond.

He waited until he heard the tone designating the voicemail was ready for him to listen.

"Kendall," there was a breathy voice—undoubtedly James', "You've got it all wrong. Please. Come back and let me explain. I uh…. I put on shoes and actual pants…so uh…" A pause, "Yeah. Come back now. Trust me. Please. You have absolutely _everything_ wrong. I'm going to stop calling now. Just please, hear me out. Come back and talk."

Kendall deleted the voicemail immediately with a sigh. He sniffled before wiping his eyes, still looking ahead at the skaters on the ice, now setting up goal posts and boundaries.

He used to play hockey. In fact, he played it all the time growing up—it was the best way to get rid of his anger, stress and sadness.

He raised an eyebrow to his own thoughts, and found himself getting up from the bench and walking down towards the iced-over pond.

"You're insane you're insane you're insane," he kept repeating to himself as he stepped on the ice cautiously—finding that it was frozen completely solid; it was exactly how it appeared. He found his old ice-feet—the ability to walk across the ice with ease, and made his way over to the guys who looked around his age, all geared up for their game.

"Hey," someone called over to him.

"Hi," Kendall responded.

_You're insane, what about your arm? You're insane, you're insane._ He did think about his arm for a second—but what did it matter if he broke it completely? It wouldn't cost him that much more.

"Do you guys uh…mind if I join you?"

The guys all straightened up and looked at him, and then more closely at his arm.

"Don't worry," Kendall reassured them. "I can play with one arm."

* * *

"You're really good at this," Kendall's new acquaintance, Austin, complimented him after a skinny-jean soaking, sweat-producing, two hour-long hockey match with nine other guys.

"Thanks," Kendall was breathing heavily as he flopped down on a pile of snow next to the pond. "I've been playing since I was six," he added. "Stopped about three years ago."

"Why?" Austin asked as he untied and kicked off his skates. "Even with your broken arm, you're really talented. What caused you to stop?"

"Started working, moving around, all that stuff," Kendall shrugged. "And it's not broken."

"So you're not from around here," Austin questioned.

"Later Austin, bye Kendall," the rest of the guys called out one by one before Kendall and Austin were sitting alone by the now-empty pond.

"No," Kendall answered. "I've been moving from place to place for the past year," he took off his own skates.

"I see," Austin nodded, looking out ahead of him. "It's freezing. Want to get some coffee?" he offered. "There's a coffee shop right across the street from here; we usually go after our games to warm up."

Kendall thought about it for a minute, wondering why he felt like there was something at the back of his mind. Did he have somewhere to go? Was there somewhere he needed to be?

He suddenly remembered why he loved hockey so much—it filtered the good thoughts from the bad; it cleared his mind out completely.

He smiled at Austin, the cold numbing his ears. "Yeah, why not?"

Austin nodded while standing up, and then held a hand out to help Kendall up.

Kendall felt his phone buzz in his pocket, but he shook his head and followed Austin.

* * *

"Oh my god, no way," Austin laughed. "He slammed into you on a skateboard and you guys ended up being fuck-buds?"

"I mean," Kendall laughed. "I'm not hard to win over."

"I don't know…the way you were playing with your arm today, you seem kind of tough, or stubborn or something," Austin took a bite of the muffin he got to accompany his coffee.

"Why's that?" Kendall was taken aback.

"If Sawyer had told you that you couldn't play because of your arm, I feel like you would have ripped the sling off then and there and just tackle him," Austin laughed.

Kendall looked down at his coffee with a smug grin.

"So what guy are you working on right now?" Austin asked with a curious look in his eyes while sipping his coffee.

_James_. The name popped into Kendall's head before he could _really_ think.

"Well," Kendall was letting the bad thoughts about this morning that he had gotten rid of temporarily take over his mind. "There was a guy," he started, thinking about what he really wanted to say to Austin. It probably wasn't a good idea to mention James' name. "He actually was the one who helped me achieve this," Kendall motioned to his sad crippled arm.

"Oh, wow," Austin leaned back in his seat, interested.

"I thought we were being honest with each other about hour feelings and…I guess things weren't going like I thought."

"He sounds like a dick," Austin gave Kendall a sincere look.

Kendall shrugged, starting to feel a little guilty about ignoring James all day.

"He hurts your arm, and I'm guessing he led you on? Kendall, that's a dick move. You can't shrug that off."

"He's actually nice," Kendall gave in. Maybe shit-talking James was not the approach to recovery that he wanted to try.

"Whatever you say," Austin rolled his eyes.

Kendall studied Austin's features: nice hazel eyes, semi-tanned skin, dark brown hair. Based on the description in his head, Kendall figured he looked like James a bit.

But no one could compare to James. James was _perfection_.

James was _also_ begging Kendall to give him a shot at explaining himself.

"You okay?" Austin interrupted Kendall's deep thoughts.

"Yeah," Kendall snapped out of it. There was no way he could face James now after ignoring him all day. "I just got lost in my head," he chuckled.

_You're a merciless asshole, Kendall._

Austin nodded, skeptical. "You're thinking about him, aren't you?" he grinned.

"Hm?" Kendall tried to play dumb.

_You didn't give James a single second to speak. You have no idea what was really going on in that picture of him and Dak. _

"_Don't_ play dumb. You're thinking of the guy who you just told me you were upset with."

"No I wasn't," Kendall blushed, trying to defend himself.

_Why are you allowed to defend yourself, when you're not letting James defend himself? _

"Look, I gotta go," Kendall was beating himself up on the inside with thoughts about James. "I've got to go do something."

"Alright," Austin was confused, it was clear. "We should do this again some time," he offered Kendall a friendly smile.

For a moment, Kendall narrowed his eyes at the James look-a-like. Unsure of whether his new friend's had flirty intentions or was simply just friendly, he shook it all off and nodded. He pulled out his phone, unlocked it and allowed Austin to put his number in and text himself.

"I'll talk to you soon," Kendall dropped a ten-dollar bill on their table to cover his coffee and the tip.

He probably would have felt bad after nearly sprinting out of the coffee shop if he hadn't felt even worse for the way he acted this morning to James. He was being immature—and his tricky mind was right: He was merciless.

"Taxi!" he waved a taxi down and got in, hoping the five o'clock traffic wouldn't be too bad. He needed to let James speak before he could hate the guy. After all, he couldn't push the feelings he had for the supermodel away so easily.

Within ten minutes he was back at the hotel in the warm lobby, glancing around nervously to make sure he didn't miss James in the big room before running upstairs. He realized there was a chance that James wasn't in his room—but he had to try.

"You're the biggest dumbass I know Kendall," he told himself in the elevator as it slowly made its way up to their floor. "You're a big dumbass. A big merciless and immature dumbass."

He crawled down the hallway slowly, scolding himself mentally for being so rude that morning. He didn't know _for sure_ if he had a good enough reason to yell at James or be upset. He definitely didn't know if he had a good enough reason to try to move on.

He reached James' door and knocked three times.

No response.

He knocked again.

Again, no response.

As he lifted his hand up to knock obnoxiously for the third time, he heard the doorknob click. He took a step back as the door swung open.

"Uh," Kendall rocked between his two feet nervously as he stared at the person in the doorway in front of him. "Hey."

* * *

**Short, lame chapter I know.**

**But I felt like I owed you guys _SOMETHING_.**

**Oh well. Hope you enjoyed it!**

**Sorry for any mistakes or grammar issues!**

**Xx**

**Sarah**


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